Wish Come True
by hannahbananaroxsox
Summary: British House of Night vampire Annabelle receives a letter from Carlisle Cullen, stating that he knows her parents and that they are living in Forks. She travels to find them with her horse, but things with the Cullen's don't seem to fit... First Fanfic
1. News

**There are quite a few horsy terms in this story. If you are usure of the meaning of any words you come across, send me a message and i will happily explain.**

**I shall have links to photos of what I imagined Swift (and the other horses that pop up) would look like on my page.**

**Stephanie Meyer owns all Twilight related characters,ideas etc and P.C and Kristin Cast own all House of Night related characters, ideas etc.**

**However, I do own the characters you don't recognise :P**

**Happy reading**

**xxx**

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I sat bolt upright in my bed. I wasn't sure what had woken me up.

Then I realised it was morning, and the shrill ringing in my ears was my alarm clock.

I dragged myself out of bed and looked out the window. The sky was overcast, but no sign of rain; a perfect day for a ride with my wonderful Andalusian stallion Twilight Swift Warrior, or Swift (as I call him), and for me to go outside without causing myself any discomfort. This is because I am a vampire and the sun irritates my eyes a little and makes my skin prickle slightly. I was Marked by the Tracker when I was around three. No one knows why, most people are not Marked until they are sixteen. My High Priestess at The House of Night thought it was because our goddess Nyx had something special for me to do, but nothing has happened yet so I think she may have been wrong. Another theory was that I was Marked early to keep me safe for some reason.

I am not your average vampire, as in my days and nights did not reverse like it did for the other fledglings and I have an extra gift, which has never been seen before. It's hard to classify my Affinity because most Affinities are for one of the five elements (fire, water, air, earth, and spirit) but Zoey Redbird has an Affinity for each of them.

Zoey was my mentor for the first few months that I was being taught about vampires at The House of Night. I went to a normal school and I was taught about the vampires in my free time (we had to fit it around my pony at the time - a naughty little grey welsh pony who was sold when I outgrew him as it was unfair to keep him when he could be teaching someone else to ride). Zoey ended up being a temporary professor there while attending a conference, but she is originally from Oklahoma. She thought that my gift is an Affinity for communication with some animals. I have only ever tried to it on horses, cats and dogs. Its strongest with the horses, possibly because I grew up around them, and they are an everyday thing at The House of Night. What I do is I can kinda read the thoughts of a particular animal and I can send a response to the animal through body language, a command, and, more recently, through a thought of my own.

I can also control the minds of other people, but that has only happened recently so I don't know much about it. Anyway, I recently found another type of vampire, through my friend Alice, who happens to be one of these vampires.

Alice lives in Forks which is in the USA, we email a lot though. I met her when I was visiting Volterra in Italy, for some research on something that I don't really remember. She had just run me over with the stolen yellow Porsche that she was driving, I had been cloaking - where I blend in with the environment and can cover ground really quickly - and had stopped in the middle of the road, just as Alice had been turning the corner, so she didn't see me. So after a quick conversation, we exchanged email addresses and have been giving each other up to date accounts of our lives since.

I was sort of adopted by some humans who knew about vampires, and because of this I became a 'vegetarian' vampire (like Alice and her family. Although at The House of Night the blood is human, but no one dies, I was still unhappy to drink it - maybe because they always lace it with wine because we apparently cant get drunk - and I despise wine).

Although I am a vegetarian vampire, I do not feed off of horses. If I was to do so, I would go to Italy to The Volturi (Alice told me about them) because I wouldn't be able to live with myself with that constantly on my conscience. But I highly doubt that because I don't find the horses at all mouth-watering, yes they smell sweet and floral, like some humans, but not that tempting. Also I don't actually have a surname, no one knows why.

I stopped daydreaming and got dressed, stopping to gasp at my expanded Mark in the mirror. Even though I had gone through the Change two months ago, the swirling tattoos that went across my forehead and down to my cheekbones still caught my breath. The tattoo took the form of two rearing horses on my cheekbones. I then strolled downstairs for breakfast. Although I am a vampire, I do eat food occasionally, but it has blood added to its ingredients and this means I can go for longer without hunting and leaving Swift to fend for himself (I liked to hunt, it gave me time to be myself and let out any anger). My mentor found that I could only take a small amount of nutrients from normal food, so she added blood. I often wonder if I have anything to do with the type of vampire that the Cullen's are.

After breakfast, I skipped out towards the stable block and whistled softly to get Swift's attention and he whickered from over his stable door in return. I went and got a couple of brushes and started grooming his grey coat to a slick shine. I then grabbed his saddle and rode him out into the woodland surrounding the house that I had inherited when my human 'parents' had died.

When I had settled Swift in his paddock, I went to check my the post. I expected one from the horse feed suppliers and maybe the cleaners, but instead there was one from Dr Carlisle Cullen. As I trusted Alice with my life, and Carlisle and Alice were related, I opened it.

_**Dear Annabelle Esme-Maria**__**, **_

The elegant script floated over the spotless beige letter paper. _Weird, no one calls me by my full name, _I thought.

_**I am Alice's father, Carlisle, and I have some important news for you and I think it's time you found out . I know who your parents are. They are alive and are in Forks. I know it sounds strange and there is no other way to explain this without getting too scientific.**_

_**I would like to give you more details, but I would prefer to tell you in person. I suggest you pack enough for well over a few weeks, and before you worry, just like your mother, you can bring your horse, as long as he isn't afraid of a few mythical creatures such as, lets say, werewolves.**_

_**Email Alice to confirm dates and I will arrange the transport for your horse.**_

_**I will meet you in the airport.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Carlisle Cullen**_

I froze, staring at the page for a good five minutes, before skim reading the letter over and over again.

"Oh my Goddess," I gasped, "my parents are…alive! I always thought I was just adopted and that was the end of it. I better go pack."

Then I sprinted to the house to phone my best friend.

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	2. Arrival

I saw him before I started looking. He stood out from everyone else in the terminal. The only way I could possibly describe him is that any film star would be jealous of his looks.

He saw me almost straight away and strode towards me, taking my luggage from me and then shaking my hand. It was kinda warm, like between the temperature of my skin and a few degrees colder. Odd.

"Hello, I'm Carlisle. You must be Annabelle Esme-Maria."

"Just Annabelle or Belle, if you don't mind. It's just that my name is so formal and it often scares people into thinking I am posh or something."

"That will be confusing - we have a Bella!" giggled Alice.

"Anna would work too," I said, grinning like an idiot.

_Oh my Goddess! _I thought, _he pronounced my name correctly. He said EzMAY instead of EzME, like everyone else does and I haven't even told Alice the correct way of saying my name. I wonder how he knows._

We started walking and then I immediately thought of Swift.

"Umm, Carlisle?"

"Yes Anna?"

"What about Swift, my horse?"

"Don't worry, he's fine. He arrived yesterday. He's in the meadow in front of our house," he reassured me.

I slept lightly on the way to forks. I could hear Alice and Carlisle talking, probably about me from the content of their conversation.

"Esme will love her! And I can tell we're going to be great friends." I could almost hear her smiling.

"I know, but I don't understand a lot about her, especially the tattoo. Maybe she will tell us in her own time," Carlisle said thoughtfully.

"What else is bothering you?" Alice asked.

"I'm also a little worried about Swift, especially if anyone decides to take a swipe at him when no one is looking."

"I know what you mean, but everyone is keeping their distance, apart from Esme, because she fusses over everyone trying to make them feel welcome, and me because I think he is a fascinating creature. And Jasper isn't too worried about him, maybe because he used to ride when he was in the army."

"Hmmm.." Carlisle thought, "it might be his body language and the fact that he is a stallion, and is therefore naturally quite dominant. Maybe the others don't want to challenge him because he could be quite dangerous, even to us."

"That's a possibility. Why do you think that he could be dangerous?"

"I have seen quite a few dominant and territorial horses in my time, but he is in a whole league of his own. He also refused that hay that horse transport company gave us for him to eat overnight."

"He could just be fussy," Alice suggested.

"I don't think so, that was some high quality hay they supplied us with."

"We should talk with Anna when she wakes up, and see if it is something that he does after a long journey."

"Yes, I suppose we should."

The conversation faded after that. I woke when we were going down what looked like a immensely long driveway.

Even before Carlisle had stopped, I jumped out of the car and whistled to Swift. When there was no answering whinny. I started to worry because the meadow had no fences. Near the edge of the drive, there way a pile of hay, obviously untouched and I knew exactly why.

I turned to look at Carlisle and he was not alone. The other Cullen's had joined him and were looking at me expectantly.

A twig snapping made me spin around and I heard a soft whicker. I whistled again.

This time, Swift came bursting out of the trees at a full gallop, his head in the air and the whites of his eyes showing. He slowed down to his floating trot halfway across the meadow and then stopped directly in front of me, trembling and snorting. He was in a right mess.

He was tense, and caked head to toe in mud and covered in twigs and leaves. His eyes were a deep black, not the soft and very light brown I was used to seeing. His journey here had not been that pleasant at all. I doubt he had eaten much when he was in quarantine.

I pulled a twig from his forelock and threw it on the ground.

"What are we going to do with you?" I asked him. And he just shook his head the way he always did when he was unsure of something you said to him.

I turned to Carlisle and the others. They weren't as close as I had thought, so I went to join them.

"Umm, did they leave him any feed?" I asked no one in particular.

"Yes, I put it in the garage with his other things." Esme told me. I looked directly into her eyes and almost gasped aloud; it was almost like looking in the mirror, except I'm more of a dark blonde and not slim, but her face shape was similar and so did the way her hair sat on her shoulders and framed her face.

"Did you notice if there was any handwriting on the bag?" I managed to ask after gathering my thoughts together.

"No, there wasn't," Carlisle informed me.

_Crap! _I thought, _what is he going to eat?_

"Why?" Edward asked me, his brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to 'read' me with his special talent, but I kept everything locked up so tightly in my head, that he would've found it hard, even if I was willing to let him know through my thoughts.

"I'll explain later."

I turned to Swift and he looked at me then walked off to eat the grass in the meadow.

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	3. The Truth

Esme helped me carry my things upstairs and helped me unpack. We then joined the others downstairs in the living room, next to the enormous grand piano.

"So, tell us about yourself." Carlisle prompted me.

I took a deep breath and sat down, following their example.

"My name is Annabelle Esme-Maria. As far as I know, I don't have a surname. I am a vampire, like yourselves, but I am very different."

_Here we go,_ I thought, _all my secrets out of the safety of my mind and into everyone else's._

_Great._

"Firstly, I am from The House of Night and I have gone through the Change, which explains the tattoos. I also have a couple of other qualities."

I looked at their faces. Rosalie glowered at me, probably because I seemed more human than herself and I knew from Alice's emails that Rosalie wished she was human - basically she was jealous.

"I am sort of like Edward, in the fact that his extra quality is to do with the minds of others. What I can do is I can control people's minds…that's not a very good explanation. What I mean is I am slightly like Alec, from the Volturi, in that I can penetrate people's minds and cut off their senses. After that I can control them, let's say, turn them on themselves, or the people that they are fighting with. I also use it to wind people up, and no, I am not doing anything to Rosalie right now, well, other than being here. I can read minds, but I can block people out if I really want to. I also have an Affinity for animal communication, like I can ask them to do things using my thoughts - if they are willing. And I can kinda shield people mentally and physically."

Alice grinned and I could see Edward trying not to laugh at my accidental dig at Rosalie.

"Can I ask you something?" Rosalie asked, quite calmly.

This shocked me, I half expected her to lunge at me. I couldn't speak, so I just nodded.

"Your horse…he's different. I mean he looks disgusted with having to eat grass for more than a few minutes and he refused hay we gave him and you also asked about his feed that was sent with him. I was just wondering why he has been doing this, and you said that you would explain and now seems like an ok time to do so."

I took a deep breath. This was my biggest secret, even bigger than the fact that _I am a vampire_.

"You're right. He isn't your average horse that you see on T.V or out in a field. That's because I have bitten him."

They all tensed and I heard Esme gasp. I had expected that.

"So, did you loose control then because I know you would go to Volterra if something like that was to happen." Emmett asked, looking like he was trying very hard to understand, and to keep up.

"No I didn't loose control. I wanted to see what would happen. I found out I was venomous about a year ago when I was ill. I was convinced the medication I was given tasted vile and whenever I thought about the medication, I had a vile taste in my mouth - like I had accidentally gotten perfume in my mouth whilst spraying it. That was when I heard that there was more types of vampire than those at The House of Night. I did a vast amount of research. The school did various DNA tests on me and found I was more like the type of vampire you are than I was a House of Night vampire. The research we did confirmed that I am venomous like yourselves. We also found that I can choose when to be venomous.

"I asked about the feed because he is a blood drinker, but because his digestive system is so delicate you have to be careful with how much he consumes and its also easier for him to digest it when it's added to his feed. The feed that I sent with him was that brand, but on the front of the bag, in the top right hand corner should have been a large 'B' showing that it had had blood added to it. But as you can see, he is quite distressed about the journey and there is no food for him, so when you go hunting, which I assume will be later today from the colour of your eyes, we will tag along."

"That should be fine. But what about the stream between the house and the forest, he might not be able to jump it if he hasn't had a proper meal for ages - the stream is quite wide, and there is no bridge." Carlisle told me.

"It might be a problem on the way but if we split up, then I will go with the second group, which will give me enough time to find a shallow route, if not we will have to swim and I will have to find a shallow slope so he can climb out. It should be fine on the way back, he will jump it then. We also have a good hunting tactic."

"Which is?" Emmett asked, his black eyes shinning.

"Other animals don't feel threatened by horses because they are prey animals, that's why people often go on horseback safaris because the horses are not a threat and you can get close to the animal you are watching, or hunting. Me and Swift can get really close to animals, almost touching them, and then we spring so fast that the animal's defensive reflexes have no time to kick in." I explained.

"Awesome! So you can hunt for the rest of us too." Emmett replied enthusiastically.

Rosalie, Carlisle, Edward, Bella and Renesmee went out to hunt first, leaving Jasper, Alice, Esme, Emmett and myself to go when they came back.

"Alice?" I asked, putting on my sweetest smile.

"What do you want?" Alice asked me, half laughing.

"Will you come with me to find a safe way through the stream?"

"Yeah, Esme do you want to come with, seeing as the boys are…" she looked over to where Emmett and Jasper were having a belching contest, "being boys."

"Yes, I have nothing else to do, and I would like to see Swift again, he is really a sweet horse." Esme replied to Alice's question.

"Sweet?" I snorted, astonished that Swift had trusted someone so early.

"Yes, he came up to me, but was a little, well, I guess you would say scared when Carlisle came to find me so we could organise Swift's things."

"I was only asking because he only really trusts me and he can be a little iffy with men because he didn't have a very good life before I got him. He might have approached because you are a very calm person and that is reflected in your body language. I also don't understand why he didn't lunge at Carlisle or run off, possibly for the same reason he approached you."

"We should go, the others will be back soon." Alice prompted us. It was obvious that she couldn't be bothered to stand around any more.

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	4. Hunt

We walked out into the damp afternoon. Esme showed me to where she had put Swift's things in the garage and I immediately grabbed his jumping bridle and his jumping saddle and a handful of his specially formulated treats before grabbing my riding hat. I then walked back out and whistled to Swift. He came trotted straight over to me and I gave him his treats and slipped his bridle on and placed the saddle on his back, doing the girth up on the first hole. I laughed when Swift pulled a face - he had never liked his girth being done up. Then I scraped my hair up into a ponytail and shoved my hat on, pulling the coloured hat silk down a little to stop it from slipping off.

We then walked around to the back of the house and into the extensive garden. Me and Swift both stopped at the same time, looking around us. It was like we had just stepped into the garden of a stately home. It was huge and filled with the vibrant colours and scents of the flowers that were neatly planted, and there was no weed in sight.

"Wow. Did you do this?" I asked Esme.

"Well myself and Carlisle, but it took a while." She looked down at the ground. If she were human I would have been sure that she would be blushing.

"Do I want to know?" I asked.

"She would set Carlisle a task and it wouldn't get finished for about a week, because Carlisle was being a right Casanova and they kept, you know, instead of gardening." Alice said quickly before Esme had a reason to go and hide under her thick caramel-brown hair.

"I didn't think so." I answered my own question, cringing slightly.

"But it wasn't half bad." Esme said.

Me and Alice burst out laughing.

"What, you and Carlisle, or the garden once you finished it." Alice said in between giggles.

"NO! I meant the garden, it didn't look half bad once we had finished it." Esme started to walk off and as she passed me, I could see her smiling.

I followed and when we got to the 'stream' I stopped, gawping. _Stream my arse._

"Carlisle wasn't joking when he said it was wide," I said in one breath.

"I know," Alice said, " I will wait the other side and Esme can stay over here and if you get into trouble, we will pull you out. We can then cross a few times so Swift knows roughly where to cross for next time you go hunting."

Alice ran down to a tree that was overhanging the stream, ran at it head on and swung off one of its branches and landed neatly the other side. I took a deep breath. I did the girth up another couple of holes, much to Swift's distaste.

"Swift, down." I said, looking right into Swift's eyes. He quickly obeyed by lying down, so I could get on. "OK, up you get." I felt him shift his weight and then he lurched up. I placed my feet in the stirrups and did the girth up for a final time.

I then clicked my tongue and nudged him gently with my heels. We walked towards the bank of the stream and I then nudged him forward again and loosened my reins to allow him to find his own way.

He walked a few metres further down the stream and then walked into the water. It came up to his chest, but he didn't feel like he was loosing his footing. Then the water started to become more shallow and we were out the other side before I knew it.

Then I heard Edward and Carlisle talking and Renesmee giggling and Jasper and Emmett appeared at the back door.

"They're back," I said, "leave any for us?" I asked Edward when he came into view with Carlisle. Swift had started to paw at the ground with his impatience to get going.

"I think. There should be two herds of deer. We hunted the one that is now smaller and has now gone to join the herd on the Quileute reservation, so we can't hunt them. Do you know about the treaty and where the boundary line is Anna?" Edward said.

"Yeah, Alice told me pretty much everything." I said, Edward noticeably relaxed. "We better go before Swift digs through to the centre of the earth."

Everyone laughed then, and Swift stopped pawing at the ground and looked up to see what all the commotion was about.

Esme leapt over the stream, in a rather traditional way - nothing fancy like Alice, to join the rest of us followed by Jasper and Emmett. I then galloped into the woods on Swift, taking my weight out of the saddle. The others followed, easily keeping pace with us as we galloped, just like we would do on a cross-country course during a competition.

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	5. Elements

On the way back, we stopped so I could stretch my legs, as I had cramp from my blood settling in them. Alice and Jasper walked with me whilst Esme and Emmett kept an eye on Swift, who was picking at the lush grass.

I could hear Emmett talking to Esme, mainly because I tapped into his head, I usually hate doing it, but I wanted to know what Esme thought of me, since it was almost like looking into a mirror when I met her earlier.

"So, what do you think of Anna?" Emmett asked, he liked me a lot. I knew he enjoyed having Bella as a 'little' sister, and I was even better because he could see the effects of embarrassing me.

"In three words - I adore her." Esme replied, sounding every bit like the mother I never had.

"She looks an awful lot like you, ya know." Emmett stated, looking over at Swift.

Esme's head snapped up and she gave Emmett a startled look. I decided at that moment to leave Emmett's view of Esme, and to tap into her mind.

_Like I haven't noticed. I bet Carlisle is keeping something from me. I will have to interrogate him later. She is like the child I never had._

"I know. I also think she looks a little like Carlisle for some strange reason," Esme told Emmett.

"Come to mention it, she does. Maybe its because she is clever and her hair is blonde. I think she may have once been Rosalie-blonde because her hair is lighter in places."

"You _are _rather observant today aren't you Emmett?" Esme laughed, shoving his shoulder lightly.

I decided to leave her head and start the walk back across the two acre clearing we had stopped in.

Hearing me approach, Swift snapped his head up from the grass and trotted up to me. I didn't need to get him to lay down this time. I walked down to one end of the clearing, followed by Swift, and then turned around. I could feel everyone staring at me, but they didn't follow. I then took the reins in one hand, with a handful of Swift's extensive amount of mane and started to run. Swift made a transition into a steady canter and I placed my right hand on the saddle. Then I jumped and swung my myself forward so I was hanging off of his side next to his shoulder. I then gave another light bounce on the ground and vaulted onto his back.

A smile spread across my face. I had only tried that on a pony without a saddle, and had slipped under the pony and had broken my leg when he stood on it, but I tried again when my leg had healed and I just made it. But that had been a time when I was low on blood and tired.

"Wow!" Alice exclaimed as I joined our hunting party again.

"Pretty impressive," Emmett commented.

"Err…thanks," I said, not sure what to think of my untidy vault.

"We should probably go, its getting late," Esme sounded a little worried at leaving Carlisle to tidy the small study that was just down the hall from their room, like he had been doing before he had to pick me up. I had seen it when I was taking my things upstairs: it was a complete shambles, like someone was looking for something and had been distracted and not gone back to tidy up. It was mainly a lot of blueprints, likely to be Esme's - I heard she liked to renovate.

When we got to the stream the others crossed first; Esme, Jasper and Alice jumping, Emmett wading through the water.

Swift was becoming impatient again, so I walked him in a circle before asking him to canter and turning him towards the stream. He understood immediately and collected his stride without being asked to. Four strides away from where he would take off, I clicked my tongue and gave him a nudge to lengthen his stride.

_Three…Two…One _I counted in my head.

I felt his back legs draw underneath him and then he leapt into the air. I wrapped my legs around him to keep from slipping off, folded my body forwards and moved my hands up his neck so he could stretch his head out on landing to stay balanced. Again, I smiled like the Cheshire Cat when he cleared the stream and then pulled up very quickly to save the lawn from being churned up.

I jumped out of my skin when Emmett started cheering. Everyone in the garden turned to give him a weird look including Swift.

I rode Swift around to the front of the house to put him in the meadow for the night and to put his tack back in the garage. When I dismounted, I had this really strange feeling and had to grab Swift's neck to stop myself from passing out and there was a tingling in the pit of my stomach - I knew what this was, it had happened before.

They obviously heard my shortness of breath and came rushing around to the front of the house. Esme looked very worried and Carlisle went into doctor mode and started checking my pulse and stuff, but I shook my head and pushed his hand away from my neck.

"I'm fine," I insisted.

"Are you sure?" Esme and Carlisle asked in unison.

"Yes." I rolled my eyes.

"Has this happened before?" Carlisle asked.

"Yeah, but it's nothing medical. It happened when I received my Affinity, but it wasn't that intense. I have a feeling I may have been given an Affinity for an Element, or perhaps all five of them, I'm not sure. I don't know why I would need the five elements though."

"Is there anyway to be sure?" Edward asked.

"One way, I think. And that is to cast a circle. The only problem being I don't have the candles or people to make a circle." I said, biting my lip.

"Why don't you just call each element to you in the order you would if you were casting a circle?" Suggested Alice.

"That could work. I will do that when I have sorted Swift out."

Once Swift had been settled, I went into the back garden. Everyone followed me outside, but stayed near the house while I went to stand on the grass, just off of the patio. I faced East to call Air.

"Air, come to me." I instantly felt a breeze that lifted my hair off of my shoulders. I heard Alice's mouth fall open with an audible 'pop'. _One down, four to go…_

I then turned to face South to call Fire.

"Fire, make your presence felt in my circle." This time, the breeze died away and I felt as though I was sitting in front of an open fire.

Next, I turned to the West to call Water.

"Water, come to me." The warmth of the invisible flames died away and I was left feeling refreshed by the cool sea spray that had replaced it. _Earth next, _I thought and I turned to the North.

"Earth, come to me." I was greeted by the smells of a warm Spring day; fruit, freshly cut grass etc, you get the idea (certainly not very helpful with my hay fever).

"Spirit, complete my circle." I felt my own spirit soar to the sky, which I didn't expect.

"Whoa," was all I could manage to say. Then I hurriedly thanked each element and asked them to depart, like I had seen when I had attended rituals in Nxy's temple, before turning to face my audience.

They all stood open mouthed at me - even Emmett was speechless and Rosalie had the funniest expression ever imaginable on her face. I giggled and everyone turned to look at Rosalie, who immediately saw what I was laughing at and changed her expression back to the one she usually wore - tolerant, but disgusted with everything she looked at - and looked me directly in the eye. _Oops! Note to self - don't upset Rosalie. EVER._

"So, it turns out I have an Affinity for each of the elements. The second vampire to be given the elemental Affinities all at one time." _I needed to get in touch with Zoey Redbird, she will give me some guidance. Which I definitely need as I don't have a clue why I may have been given these Affinities. I think I have her email somewhere…_

"So your even more weird now?" Asked Emmett.

"Emmett! That is no way to talk to our guest!" Esme was truly astounded by his outburst, unfortunately Emmett wasn't to smart when it came to thinking before he spoke.

I just laughed at him. "Yeah, basically," I muttered when I had sobered up enough to talk.

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	6. Wolves

Feeling a little dazed, I followed Alice into the kitchen. Luckily, the Cullens had stocked their shiny new fridge with food when they had heard I was visiting. Although it had been a long day and I was almost asleep on my feet, I practically sprinted across the kitchen. I hadn't eaten on the plane because I slept through the breakfast and lunch they provided. Basically, the only nutritional substance I had eaten since yesterday was some blood, but I really wanted something normal like cheese on toast.

When Alice had helped me with the oven and I was cramming toast into my mouth, we went through to the living room and sat in front of the TV. Carlisle had put the news on and Emmett was taking an interest in the sport headlines.

Then I heard a noise. Like a predator of some sort. I could hear its low breathing and its almost silent footfalls as it stalked something out the front of the house. No one else had flinched.

Swift.

I moved so quickly then it surprised me, even quicker than Edward. The plate that was on my lap fell to the floor and shattered. I sprinted across the room, flew out the front door and onto the driveway in front of the house in less than a second.

I could hear it again. Closer this time. I couldn't smell it though - it was downwind from the house, and where Swift was grazing. I heard Emmett, Alice, Carlisle and Esme on the porch behind me.

"Alice, doesn't she know?" I barely heard Esme talk, worry filling her voice. I was too distracted.

Then whatever it was emerged from the trees directly in front of the house. It was a russet coloured wolf and it was huge, possibly not much smaller than Swift. Swift immediately chose to flee instead of fight. The wolf sprang towards him.

"Anna, no!" Alice shouted, but I saw red - the wolf was about to attack my best friend and take a piece of my spirit in doing so.

I leapt through the air between my horse and the wolf and took a fighting crouch so I could spring easier.

The wolf kept coming.

I pulled myself up slightly and silently called air to me and concentrated it in my hands. Then I flung my hands forward towards the wolf. As the element hit him he flew through the air backwards and landed with a sickening crack against a tree.

Then I fell to my knees and started to cry. I never enjoyed seeing the animals that I didn't hunt in pain, a reason I was thinking of becoming an animal physiotherapist or something. I reached behind me with my mind and could feel that Alice and Emmett where completely frozen. Carlisle sprinted past me towards the tree that the wolf had hit. As I reached Esme she unfroze and came sprinting up to me. I was in too much of a state to keep my shield up. Esme knelt beside me and pulled me towards her, practically cradling me in her lap. She was crying too (minus tears) because I was so distressed. We sat there for what seemed like hours, but what was only a few minutes. Esme was desperately trying to calm me down but I had started to hyperventilate.

Then I couldn't breathe. I have asthma which isn't too severe, but can strike when I do a large amount of exercise or when I get hysterical, but I had never had an attack like this. I saw complete panic cross Esme's face. I was gasping for air, but I couldn't seem to force any into my lungs. I was as petrified as Esme looked.

"Carlisle!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, even though he could probably hear her if she had whispered, "Carlisle, she can't breathe!" She started sobbing like I had been, her whole body shaking.

Carlisle appeared at my side then and took me from Esme's arms and placed me on the ground flat on my back.

"Alice, go into my study and get the oxygen cylinder out of the cupboard!" He had to shout to make Alice unroot herself from where she had frozen.

Then I did something I had never done before in my entire life - I passed out.

When I came around I was in the Cullen's living room. I was on the sofa and my head was resting on Esme's lap and she was stroking my hair. I didn't mind this, but it was getting weird how everyone was acting like I might break when I was probably able to defend myself more with my shield and probably more dangerous to opposition because of my Affinities. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but it felt like someone was running sandpaper down my throat and I just made a pathetic little squeak.

"Shh, don't try to talk," Esme whispered, brushing my hair out of my face.

We were the only people in the room. I then heard this half grunt-half snore that sounded both animal and human. Then it stopped and there was just even breathing - exactly like what I had heard from the wolf earlier.

I hissed.

"Ow!" I muttered.

Carlisle came in then with a glass of water. He probably heard the noise my windpipe made in protest when I hissed. He put the glass down on the coffee table.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I've felt better."

"Well, you should be fine by tomorrow. Your windpipe and your lungs took quite a battering and so did Jacob."

"Who's Jacob?"

"He's a werewolf. The one you attacked in fact."

"Oops. He was hunting Swift. I heard him. I don't know how though, I have always had average human hearing and I have never moved that fast, even when cloaking."

"I think you may be the same type of vampire as ourselves, rather than a bit like us, a bit like the House of Night vampires," Edward said thoughtfully from the doorway.

"What about my Mark then?" I asked.

"Hmm. Come back to me on that one," he chuckled once.

Someone in the corner of the room stirred then. I heard joints crack with stiffness and saw a huge dark shape out of the corner of my eye.

"Anna, this is Jacob." Carlisle introduced us. Miraculously he looked fine, if a little stiff.

"I heal pretty quick. On the other hand, you look like you have seen better days." Jacob said with a smile on his face.

"I can't even begin to like you when you tried to kill my horse. He will be unsettled for days now, no thanks to you." I said with the coldest expression I could manage. "I need to go and see him," I said looking up at Esme.

She looked over at Carlisle.

"OK, but not for long. Esme will go with you." Carlisle confirmed.

I stood up slowly to stop myself feeling light-headed. I hadn't noticed until now how exhausted I was. Esme followed me out the front of the house. Surprisingly Swift was quietly grazing and didn't look fazed by what had happened earlier. He looked up at our approach, whickered, and then went back to grazing.

"That's weird. I expected him to be hiding somewhere and to be traumatised."

"Jacob came out to see him when you were unconscious. He fazed into a wolf in front of Swift," Esme informed me.

"I still don't forgive him just yet. What time is it?"

"It's five-thirty." Esme said, looking at her watch. "Emmett went and got the correct feed for Swift earlier."

"He usually gets fed around now." I said and started to make my way towards the garage, which had been left open.

There were four bags of feed. I don't know why he would need that much, he only had two small feeds a day and we probably weren't going to be here that long. I opened the one nearest me, grabbed Swift's rubber feed bowl and the round feed scoop. I put half a scoop of the feed in the bowl and added a couple of treats. Esme put the feed bags in an empty lockable cupboard. There were tack racks that housed Swift's bridle and his three saddles and other spare pieces of tack that I had packed. There were also two shelves holding my grooming kit and equine first aid kit along with Swift's rugs and his exercise and travel boots.

"There is a storm tonight and I wouldn't want Swift out in that, so he can stay in here until Emmett gets some materials to make a couple of stables. He wont go near the cars will he? I don't think anyone will be too happy if they find their car damaged." Esme said.

"He wont. Thank you. You don't happen to have any shavings I could put down in case he wants to lay down do you? They don't smell as much as straw and it will be easier to sweep out in the morning." I asked.

"Emmett picked a bale up when he got the feed. He should have the wood in the morning and with a little help the stable will be ready by this time tomorrow."

I spread half the bale of shavings on the space that had been cleared for Swift (it was even bigger that the stable he had at home!) and I put his feed on the floor. As he ate, me and Esme went to the garden tap to fill up two buckets of water. We placed these on the garage floor in front of the shavings so the buckets wouldn't get shavings in them and then wouldn't need to be scrubbed in the morning.

By now I was almost asleep on my feet and Esme had to practically carry me into the house. She set me down in the dining room and went into the kitchen. I turned to lean on the table and almost screamed. Renesmee was sitting across the table from me and I hadn't noticed, hence the almost screaming. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Sorry, I thought you knew I was sitting here. I'm doing the same as you - waiting for some food."

"Don't worry, I become less responsive the more tired I get. Do you have any idea what is being cooked?" I asked.

"Nope. All I know is that Jacob will probably eat most of it." She smiled.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Fire away."

"How old are you? I heard that you have grown at an abnormal rate since the day you were born, and you currently look about the same age as me."

"I am physically sixteen, but it has been seven years since my birth, and I have stopped growing within the past year."

"We should get on quite well I think."

"I hope so. I think that's what everyone is expecting because we are the same age etc, etc."

"Typical really." I smiled at her.

Our conversation stopped there when Edward came in with food, tuna pasta bake to be precise. Jacob followed with his own portion which must have been three times the size of what Renesmee and I managed to finish.

After what felt like an hour after I had eaten, I was sitting next to Esme in front of the TV nearly falling asleep when she pointed out the time to me - it was nearly eleven. I didn't think it was that late, but I had been unconscious for a lot of the day. Emmett and Rosalie had gone out and Bella and Edward had gone to their cottage. Renesmee had left to drive Jacob home (Jacob had fallen asleep straight after dinner), she told me that she had passed her test almost six months previously. Alice and Jasper had gone out for a walk and said they would probably be back late. That left Carlisle, Esme and myself in the big house.

Carlisle was just leaving to go on a night shift at the hospital, but it sounded like he couldn't find his car keys. He kept opening and slamming drawers in his study.

"They're in the drawer by the front door, where they should be. I put them there when I was tidying up earlier." Esme rolled her eyes.

By this point I had slumped against Esme's shoulder and was just dozing off when I was gently lifted by Carlisle. I didn't protest (I would normally have been really embarrassed, but everyone had left) and leant against his shoulder as he walked up the stairs at a human pace. I felt a rush of air as Esme scooted past to get the door to the room I was going to be staying in. Carlisle placed me on the bed, kissed Esme and promised not to be home too late and then left.

I didn't care that I was still fully clothed, but Esme pulled out my pj's from the wardrobe and shooed me into the en suite bathroom to get changed while she made the bed - something I failed to do earlier. I scraped my hair up into a messy ponytail and put my clothes in the wash basket. When I went back into the bedroom, the bed was neatly done and Esme had left some liquid paracetomol on the beside table, because I cant swallow tablets. Carlisle insisted I took some painkillers because I would feel really crappy in the morning if I didn't. I took the painkillers and slid into bed.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillows.

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	7. Day of Rest

When I woke up I had a sore throat, but it wasn't as bad as when I had last had the flu. The house was silent. I listened closer; I could hear Esme and Carlisle talking (about what, I don't know) and the TV was on (probably Emmett watching sports). This new, slightly better hearing was creepy. I got out of bed and hobbled over to the bathroom. I was usually stiff in the morning, but I usually loosened up after a couple of minutes. I glanced at the mirror; I looked like I had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

I washed my face and then went back into the bedroom. It was slightly overcast today I noted when I glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling windows in my room. I picked up my mobile - it was eight o'clock and it was Sunday. Wishing I had slept longer, I walked in the general direction of the stairs (not that I remembered exactly where they were - this was a huge house).

When I got downstairs, I heard raised voices. I couldn't make out what was going on, so I reached out with my mind instead. Emmett and Jasper were arguing over what sports news station to watch - typical guy stuff. I walked into the kitchen to find Esme and Carlisle drinking a glass of what looked like wine, until my brain woke up and told me it was blood. They looked up as I tripped over my own feet and stumbled through the door.

"I thought Bella was a clumsy human," Edward remarked from the other side of the room where he was reading a book.

"Well I'm the world's clumsiest vampire," I replied hoarsely.

He laughed.

"How are you feeling?" Carlisle asked, "Your breathing sounds better this morning."

"I feel like some has been running sand paper down my throat. To be honest its not that bad - I had a worse sore throat when I last had the flu." I muttered. I hadn't bothered to put my mental shields back up so Edward answered my unspoken question.

"They were discussing whether they should send you to school tomorrow."

I looked from Carlisle to Esme. "I suppose I should. I mean, I need to really. I'm going to be taking animal science when I go to university so I can't really miss out on any science lessons."

"You thinking of becoming a vet or something similar?" Edward asked.

"Yeah. So I would be going to Forks High School. Any idea what lessons they would make me endure?"

"Well, you would be able to choose, seeing as you are from outside the country, as long as its four lessons and they're not full, they shouldn't mind." Edward told me. "Carlisle could phone the school now to tell them what lessons you want to do."

"Really?" I asked with a surprised tone in my voice, (why would anyone be in on a Sunday? - one answer: paperwork) "I suppose I will do biology, chemistry, geography and… I don't know. I cant take history because I don't know anything about American history, maths will drive me nuts, I don't know any languages apart from English… That's it!" Carlisle gave me slightly startled look: probably because I didn't look like I had any energy and didn't sound like I could talk much above a whisper. "I will take chemistry, biology, geography and English."

"That's settled then," Esme spoke up, "Carlisle will phone the school and you will have a shower, get dressed and feed Swift. When you're done, I will make you some breakfast."

I turned and dragged myself from the room and up the stairs. The hot shower made me feel tonnes better and I felt more awake. I dried my hair, tied it up and straightened my fringe.

I found my grey skinny jeans and a t-shirt and pulled my thin black zip up hoodie on. By now it was about nine o'clock. Swift would be waiting very patiently, he was usually fed by my twenty year old cousin (who I share the house with) in the morning, especially if it was the weekend and I didn't exactly need to get up for school or anything. She also had attended The House of Night and found it easier to be up during the day when the weather was dull (most of the time actually) than to be trying to sleep. In the summer, she would get up while it was still dark and muck out Swift and mix his feed for me so I could just give him his feed and then go to school when I woke up.

I walked through the house and out into the garage. The door was open, but Swift was waiting patiently on the shavings I had put out the night before. I went into the cupboard with all his things in and was surprised to find a feed already made up with a plastic cover over the feed bowl.

There was a note. Esme. Obviously she would remember the feed I mixed for him the night before. I suppose it was pretty lucky that he had the same feed morning and evening.

While he was eating, I took his lightweight rug off, folded it and hug it over one of his saddles. I also changed his water and flicked him off quickly with a brush before heading back inside.

As soon as I walked through the door I could smell bacon. I was being spoilt rotten and I had only been here one day. It would be back to toast in the morning. Jasper had found my ipod and speakers that I had in my hand luggage, probably while Esme was unpacking everything. He was currently playing 'The Middle' by Jimmy Eat World.

"It's one of my favourites." He explained. I nodded in agreement.

I made my way through to the kitchen where Esme had made me a bacon sandwich.

"How did you know I like bacon sandwiches?"

"Edward came over last night and you know how he picks up thoughts? Well, you had let your shield down and you were dreaming about bacon sandwiches apparently." Esme laughed.

I just stared at her, "anyway, I absolutely LOVE you for this," I said smiling. At that moment Jasper had suddenly put Steps on full blast. We all poked our heads through to the living room to see him raving away. Alice was standing at the top of the stairs and her expression mirrored ours - completely gobsmaked. As soon as the song finished, we all burst out laughing. The look on Jasper's face was priceless. Still giggling uncontrollably, I walked past Carlisle, Esme and Edward into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

When I had sobered up enough to eat and when I had finished, Edward shoved his mobile under my nose. He had filmed the whole thing.

"I like your way of thinking."

"Youtube?" He asked, smiling. I chuckled and nodded.

I turned to Carlisle, "do you think it would be wise for Swift to have a day of rest?"

"I think it would be best. I also think you should rest. And you should look at required measurements for a stable and supervise Emmett later when he starts work on the stable that Esme told you about yesterday."

"At the moment, we have a problem. The only thing that could go straight onto the grass would be a field shelter. We need concrete down to construct a stable. And the concrete will take forever to dry and can't be perfectly smooth so it provides some grip." I informed him.

By now, Emmett had joined us. "That will set us back a few hours. I will get straight onto it. There has got to be a company in the phonebook that specialises in stable construction. Its probably wiser to get someone other that me to do it anyway."

We all nodded in agreement. Alice scared me half to death when she grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards the door. She wasn't acting like I would break, like everyone else, and she used her full strength.

"What are you doing?" I asked and stopped and pulled my hand from her grip.

Everyone was astonished. Carlisle was thinking about performing some tests on me. I glared at him and he immediately thought about something else.

"I need to sort out what you are wearing tomorrow. No need to be a teenager about it." Alice grinned at me. I just gawped at her.

"I wasn't though." I went to voice what I had just picked up, but Carlisle's face practically screamed _NO._

He was definitely hiding something and was doing a good job of it. Edward was oblivious. And he blatantly wanted to keep it from Esme. I don't know how he could keep stuff from her - they were way too connected. Surely she would notice. _Come to think of it, _I thought,_ when we went hunting, she did say she thought that Carlisle was hiding something. _I had a feeling that she would grill him as soon as we were all out of the house.

Alice grabbed me again, practically swinging me off of my feet. Esme was thinking that Alice should be more careful and wished me luck. Seriously, why was everyone acting weird. I was going to find out soon, even if I had to snoop.

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	8. School

**Chapters 8, 9 and 10 are fairly long because I couldn't find appropriate places to stick new chapters in and still make it flow**

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I managed to persuade Alice to let me choose my own clothes for the following day. She was pleasantly surprised with my choice of jeans and a green short sleeve checked shirt over a strappy top with a hoodie. She had truly underestimated me.

I caught a lift with Nessie to school. She would be in my English and geography lessons, which were at the beginning and end of the day. I was glad that she took me to my other classes, seeing as I didn't know anyone and I am naturally very shy - I would wait for someone to approach me. That happened in chemistry.

I was one of the first to class and placed in the only empty seat. I was just writing the date and title when a pile of books crashing to the desk in the place next to me made me jump out of my skin.

I glanced up briefly and saw another vampire. Another House of Night vampire. And he was gorgeous. I had to clench my jaw to stop me from gawping and embarrassing myself. He had short light brown hair and you could tell he had well sculpted muscles under his t-shirt. His eyes were bright blue - a few shades lighter than my own. He wore an extremely cute half smile, but I could tell he was uncomfortable. Probably because of the concealer we have to wear in public - many guys didn't like it, but would accept it. He probably still lived at the local House of Night, but had completed the change early (like me) so had gone to regular school so he could keep up a charade when he left the vampire school for good.

As he sat down he noticed there was someone in the once empty space next to him.

"Hello, I haven't seen you around, you're new here?" His voice sounded as good as he looked.

"Yeah," his eyebrows shot up at my English accent, "I am on a mission to find my parents. I thought I was adopted, and it's a long story."

"I'm sure I can keep up." He smiled

"It's not suitable for human ears." I whispered. He seemed to get the idea then.

"Meet me in the cafeteria at lunch. We can talk then." He smiled again.

I took a large chunk of notes, and it was the end of the lesson before I knew it. Nessie met me outside my class and walked me to biology and then disappeared to art.

Biology was a complete blur and I got most of the work done, probably because I was sitting by myself. The day was a little weird so far. Bella had told me that I would be like a shiny new toy and they would be practically fascinated by me.

No one had actually approached me yet, maybe because Nessie was taking me too my lessons. Again, Nessie met me and walked me to the cafeteria.

"There's this guy in my chemistry that has an early education like me." I raised my eyebrows at her to make sure she knew what I was going on about. There were too many people around to say exactly.

"That would be Matt Cullen. He's no relation to the rest of us, its just a coincidence - DNA proved it, well Carlisle's did. He's a really nice guy. We're kinda friends. He sits with me at lunch."

"He wants to talk to me, he gathered we were similar." I spoke quietly again as someone pushed past us. We didn't need to queue as we had bought lunch on the way to school for half the price.

"I think it's a school thing with having ridiculous prices for food." I said as we sat in the furthest corner from the door.

"It's probably because they are paying a catering company to provide the food and they probably don't charge reasonably," Nessie agreed.

"Mind if I sit here?" Asked that gorgeous voice I had heard earlier.

" 'course not Matt." Nessie smiled at him.

"We met earlier, didn't we?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I'm Annabelle, most people call me Anna. I guess you want to hear my story?"

"Yeah, considering you are friend material." He laughed.

I spent the next five minutes telling him how I was Marked early, how I had met Alice, about my recent Affinities and also about Swift.

"I thought I saw a horse a couple of nights ago. I was hunting some deer and I saw him watching me, he even came up to me."

I gawped at him, "he hardly approaches anyone without me, especially a guy. That was probably the night he arrived, he hadn't had blood for a couple of days."

"Well, I gave him non-threatening body language. I grew up with horses and have spent years working with different methods. I especially admire Monty Roberts, I have never understood Parelli. I have noticed recently that I can communicate to animals through body language, maybe I have an Affinity."

_OMG! _I thought, _he is good looking, smart AND sensitive. And he loves horses and understands them like me!_

"It's quite possible, I have an Affinity for animal communication. I can use thoughts to 'talk' to them and ask them questions and also give answers to questions that they have. It works best with horses and is a little less effective with dogs and the wolves." I gathered he would know about the wolves, gathering as he was friends with Nessie and the rest of the Cullen's.

Nessie left for English and Matt offered to walk me there seeing as he was in the same class.

On the way, we talked about him. He had been marked early, like me, and had always attended 'normal' school and then done the vampire learning in the evenings and at the weekends when he had no homework.

"Zoey Redbird is at the local House of Night, you should go talk to her today after school." He mentioned when we had run out of things to talk about.

"Maybe at the weekend, we are in the process of building a stable for Swift. Well, Emmett _should _be getting it organised."

"I will tell her that you need to talk to her. I can get her email if you want."

"That would be brilliant, thank you."

English seemed to drag by. All I seemed to do was the work covered in the previous week so I was "up to date" as the teacher had put it.

"I have to finish a project for my art class, so you will have to find your own way home. I really should have told you earlier." Nessie looked very apologetic.

"Don't worry, I think I know roughly what way to walk."

"Ok, see you later."

"Bye," I muttered.

When I had walked five minutes in the general direction we had come to school in, my phone rang. Esme.

"Hello, I'm on my way home. Nessie forgot to tell me about the project she had to stay behind for."

Esme let out a long breath and then started talking, "I was starting to worry, but then I remembered you don't walk as fast as we do. Turn around and go up to the hospital. Carlisle will bring you home. He's working in the emergency department today. Just go up to the desk and ask for him, they should send you in the right direction."

"I will, bye." She hung up before could say 'bye'.

I turned and followed the signs to the hospital. I walked fairly fast as the light was beginning to fade. It took me fifteen minutes to walk to the hospital. I waited outside for a minute to catch my breath so I didn't sound panicked, and then walked through the door. The smell of disinfectant hit me like a slap in the face.

I wrinkled my nose. I had always hated the smell of hospitals, it made me feel sick. I should be used to it, seeing as I am usually tearing ligaments left, right and centre due to clumsiness. I then walked up to the front desk.

"Can I help you?" The receptionist was way too cheerful for a Monday.

_No, I'm standing here for the benefit of my health, _I thought sarcastically before answering "Yeah, I'm looking for Car… Dr. Cullen."

"He should be in his office, I will point you in the right direction." _Wonder what relation this one is to him, she looks an awful lot like Mrs Cullen, and a little like Dr. Cullen, _she thought as I followed her down the corridor. She stopped and pointed down a corridor that had a door at the end of it.

"There you go." _Weirdo._

"Thanks a lot, takes one to know one." I muttered when she was out of earshot.

I knocked politely when I got to the door.

"Yes?" He probably heard me when I walked through the front door.

I opened the door and poked my head in, just as he was stuffing some paper work into a draw in his desk and locking it, before placing his keys back in his pocket. "Esme sent me. Nessie forgot to tell me about this project she had to stay behind for."

"I know, she rang me."

"Like you two _need_ a phone to communicate." I laughed.

"That is quite true, she has been giving me this weird look lately, like I am hiding something from her. I couldn't do that. She would ask Edward about it. And if she couldn't get an answer out of him, she would corner me."

"I really can't imagine her doing that. Is she the kind of person that is quite scary when angry?"

"Yes." He laughed. "Once she was angry at Emmett for play fighting too roughly with Jasper and breaking the dining room table. It was the only thing her mother left her. I don't think her mother heard about her 'death'," he made quote marks in the air with his fingers, "I had to tell them to hide. She was in such a state and went around cleaning while complaining to me. She was slamming objects down after dusting them and some smashed, then she started rambling goodness knows what until I grabbed her by the shoulders and told her to get a hold of herself. She basically collapsed in my arms and started sobbing, it was quite strange. That was the first time she had had a mini breakdown since she had been changed into a vampire."

"When she lost her baby was the first ever time, right?"

He nodded.

"So, you mean it has happened since?" I asked, frowning.

"Yes, the day you arrived. When she collapsed next to you, I could here it beginning to happen in her breathing. She was getting hysterical. While you were unconscious, she just sat there stroking your hair, like it was therapy for her. Early yesterday morning she was a little better."

"I guess she just needed comforting, I have been like that before. She was trying to calm me down before she started panicking that day." I saw Esme in a different way now. She seemed not to have a care in the world, but she was too busy fussing over everyone else to care about her own feelings. We had more in common than I thought. I was usually to worried about Swift to think much about myself.

"Don't look so sad, she will interrogate me for days if you walk into the house looking like that."

That made me smile.

"Lets go," Carlisle suggested.

When we arrived home, there was a car I didn't recognise in the driveway. I decided to investigate using my mind. I reached out and found two vampires, friends of Jasper. Nomads. And they were hungry. I looked at Carlisle.

"Walk behind me into the house, I can protect you easier if they turn on you." He whispered, none of the vampires would have heard him.

I got out of the car and stayed right behind him. I kept tabs on the other vampires as we walked up to the house. Esme was very tense, unusual even when she was worried. Emmett was on his guard. They all knew that the other two could go for me, and that would be a disaster. I would definitely die. Even Rosalie was worried for me. That probably scared me more than the prospect of an early death.

All their heads turned to the door as we walked into the house. I peeked around Carlisle's arm.

"So, this is the guest you spoke of. What is it with you and humans?" The male asked, his red eyes glowing and his lips turning up into a malicious smile.

I took a deep breath and stepped clear of Carlisle's shadow.

"Actually I'm no human," I wiped the concealer off my forehead, "and I feel that you are no longer welcome here."

Jasper nodded at me, just a small inclination of his head. He agreed. I was met with blank looks from these visitors. _Peter and Charlotte _Edward thought at me.

"Would you be kind enough to leave?" Carlisle asked with an authoritive tone to his voice.

I had never seen a vampire move so quickly, they were spooked by Carlisle's expression. I saw it through their thoughts and nearly ran myself. He was terrifying when he was pissed off. I wouldn't like to see him angry, although I don't think that had ever happened, or ever will.

I was shaking. Esme had her arms around me then.

"That was very brave." Jasper remarked. Everyone nodded. I still couldn't move.

"You ok?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow at me.

Esme rolled her eyes and then grabbed my shoulders and gave me one quick shake. I looked straight into her concerned eyes, she wasn't convinced it had worked. A tear rolled down my cheek then.

Esme hugged me again and this time I hugged her back, she felt kinda warm to me, like Carlisle. Strange.

"I was so scared," I mumbled into her hair.

"So was I," she admitted.

Esme let me go then and I went straight into the kitchen to look for food. I looked in the fridge and found a green apple. I then walked back into the living room to grab my school bag so I could start my homework. Carlisle was in his study and Esme was sitting on the sofa reading. I grabbed my bag from over by the door and walked around to the computers around the corner. Alice was there working on what looked like clothing designs. I sat down next to her and switched the computer on.

"What do you think, pink or yellow?" Alice asked, tilting her head on one side as she looked at the screen.

I looked at the dress on her screen. She kept flipping between the two colours.

"Why don't you do one of each," I suggested, "they both look really good, red would look good too and blue and also black."

"Are you saying I should do a selection so they will sell better when me and Rose finish the collection?"

I nodded.

"I shall ask Rose later what she thinks. You could be like market research for us." We laughed.

I turned to my computer then and started on my research homework for biology. I had to write a page on microbiology and something about fermenting to make alcohol etc etc.

It must have taken me about an hour to find all the relevant information and reword it so it didn't look like I had copied and pasted the whole thing.

"We are all going hunting and to check that Peter and Charlotte have actually left the area. Nessie should be home soon, just don't leave the house until we get back." Alice said while she saved the various different copies of the dress she had been working on.

"Ok, how long will you be?" I asked, pressing print.

"About an hour, tops. Nessie will be home about the same time."

"See you later."

I walked up stairs and dumped my stuff on my bed. I looked out of the window and watched them all run into the woods out the front of the house. When I was sure they were out of earshot I went walking down the hallway towards Carlisle and Esme's room.

"If Esme is suspecting that Carlisle is hiding something, then it wont be in their room." I muttered to myself and then turned and walked toward Carlisle's office.

I didn't know what I expected to find, maybe some answers to the weird things that had been happening; the warmth of Carlisle and Esme, the emotional connection me and Esme shared…

I looked through all the draws, being careful not to move anything as it would prove I had been snooping around.

I found nothing.

"It would be at the hospital where no one could find it." I remembered what he said about Esme interrogating him. And I also remember that he was locking documents away in his desk. He had moved at a human pace, like he wanted me to know where he had put those papers.

I walked down the stairs and stopped by the small table by the front door that housed everyone's keys. Carlisle's keys were there. I easily picked out the one that was the key for a small lock. _There has to be a couple of spares_ I thought as I began looking through the draw, I found a spare key that matched. I had a plan that would even fool Edward.

I stuffed the key into the pocket of my riding coat and grabbed my memory stick. Swift was waiting patiently in the garage for me. I quickly scribbled a note and left it by the door.

_**Have gone to the hospital, I think my memory stick fell out of my pocket. I had it when I got to the hospital earlier, but not when I got home. I have taken Swift with me. **_

_**Will be back soon,**_

_**Anna**_

Then I mounted Swift and set off down the driveway.

It took me around fifteen minutes to ride to the hospital. When I arrived tied Swift to a bike rack. I was glad I'd had the sense to put his head collar underneath his bridle and to bring string with me.

_Stay here please, _I told him through my thoughts.

_You have my word. _I had never had an answer before, I was getting used to weird things happening now.

I walked up to the receptionist, "Carlisle asked me to come and pick something up for him, I will be about five minutes."

She just nodded at me and turned back to the computer in front of her. I walked to Carlisle's office. The door was unlocked. I walked in and went straight to the desk and unlocked the drawer. It was empty, apart from a couple of pens and some plain paper. I locked the drawer again and tried the filing cabinet.

_Locked. _I sighed. _He has something to hide_, _I should talk to Esme, she can help me find out what exactly._

I turned and left then, double checking that I had locked everything and that I had my memory stick in my pocket. As I walked through reception I got an expectant look from the receptionist so I took the memory stick out of my pocket and waved it between my thumb and forefinger. She wasn't suspicious.

Swift had stayed exactly where I had told him. He had attracted a couple of people and about three children.

"Good boy," I said as I tightened his girth again, he pulled a face baring his teeth a little.

"Is there something wrong with him?" a small girl asked, coughing a little.

"No, he just doesn't like his girth being done up. A lot of horses don't." I smiled at her.

Swift turned his head toward her and stretched out his neck and then blew noisily through his nostrils at her, making her giggle. She coughed again.

"Get better soon," I smiled again.

"Thank you," she said turning to follow her dad back into the hospital.

"Thank you, I think that may give her the will to get better quicker." The girl's mother said to me.

"It should do, animal therapy is very affective. Sometimes dogs are used. My friend had a very bad lung infection once and it was the fact she could see her horse every day that gave her the determination to get better so she could ride again. I was riding the horse for her and she said she wanted to ride him after the effort I had put into getting rid of his bad habits, before he could pick them up again. She was riding two weeks after that."

"That's amazing, we should bring our dog down here once a week, just to brighten up her day, thanks again."

"No problem."

I liked helping people out, I would have to ask Carlisle to check in on the girl every now and again.

When I got home, the house was empty and it was very dark. I settled Swift in the garage and then replaced the desk key and shredded the note I had left. It was obvious no one had returned. I heard a car pull up then and I went and opened the door. They had all gotten a lift in Nessie's car.

"You could have walked back faster than the car moves with no one in it!" I shouted.

"They have left, nothing to worry about." Carlisle said, walking towards the house with his arm around Esme.

"That's good. I had to pop out earlier. I dropped my memory stick in your office earlier."

"How did you get there?" Emmett asked.

"I flew, how do you think I got there? I took Swift. I tied him to a bicycle rack. When I went to get him I met this young girl and spoke to her mum about animal therapy. The girl really liked Swift, he really brightened up her day. I also said dogs are sometimes used and gave an example of a friend and her horse. The girl's mum is going to take their dog to see her once a week."

"That would be Felicity. She's one of my patients actually. Had a nasty lung infection that nearly killed her, she's not long been walking. She just didn't have the energy to do anything." Carlisle said.

"That's really nice of you, something Esme would do. Rosalie should take notes." Nessie laughed knowing Rose could never be angry at her.

"Esme, did you move the feed scoop? Swift has been waiting for half an hour." I asked.

"Yeah, I will grab it for you." I followed her around to the garage whilst everyone else departed.

When we got into the garage I went straight to the cupboard and started mixing Swift's feed. I didn't need the feed scoop, I only needed to get Esme alone. Thank Nyx she knew my intentions.

"He's hiding something," I whispered.

She nodded. I told her about his weird behaviour when I went to the hospital earlier.

"He was also a little iffy when you mentioned that you went up to the hospital while we were out. I think he's glad you didn't lie though." We were sat on the worktop in the garage with our heads close together so we could whisper really quietly.

"That's not exactly true. I didn't drop my memory stick, I went to see what the paper in his desk was about. It was clear from his body language that it was about me. But the desk was empty and the filing cabinet was locked, so he must have put it in there while I wasn't looking."

"We will need to get him alone. Everyone is going to Vancouver tomorrow, apart from me and Carlisle, because you are here, and Nessie, but she is staying with Jacob."

"Tomorrow." I said.

"Tomorrow." She agreed.

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	9. Interrogation

I woke to the sun shining brightly through my window. I would have to find my own way to school today, and I would definitely get lost walking. Nessie wouldn't have the time to come and get me before school. I dressed in the first clothes I could find and went downstairs. Alice hadn't left yet. _I completely forgot about her. Crap._

"Morning Alice."

She grabbed my arm and dragged me around to the computer. "I know you and Esme are planning something, but I'm going to try my best not to think about it." She whispered.

"I have an idea. I could give you an element for today, Earth would be good. Earth nurtures and protects." I whispered back.

"Get on with it! Jasper wont wait any longer."

"Earth, come to me." We both smiled at the sudden rush of summer fragrances. "Now, can you go to Alice, protect her mind for today, please?"

Alice jumped when the element entered her body, spreading to her fingertips.

"Lets test it." She suggested.

I reached out with my thoughts and tried to get into Alice's head, but found nothing.

"It's good to go, have fun." I said the last bit normally so no one would be suspicious over the quiet murmur of voices they couldn't work out.

I walked through to the kitchen and looked at the clock.

"Shit!" I nearly shouted, "If I have to ride to school, I'm going to be late!"

"Jasper already tacked him up and groomed him for you and he was fed at half five this morning. The stable will be ready tomorrow, they laid the concrete yesterday." Carlisle murmured without looking up from the newspaper.

I grabbed a cereal bar for breakfast and an apple, a bottle of water and a sandwich (that someone was kind enough to make for me, Esme no doubt) from the fridge. I then grabbed my school bag and shoved everything in it, grateful that I had brought a rucksack instead of my usual shoulder bag with me.

Then I ran out into the garage. Esme was there.

"I rang the school and they said Swift can stay on the playing fields as they are hardly ever used and will be churned up if the boys go mental while playing football."

"Thanks." I smiled and then turned to Swift. Jasper had even put his lightweight field rug on him. I grabbed a set of brushing boots and overreach boots and secured them quickly around his legs.

I lead him out of the garage and then over to a group of rocks near the trees closest to the house so I could mount. And then we were off. Carlisle and Esme watched me from the porch.

Swift was on his toes and jogged a few times on the way down the drive. When we hit the road he was warmed up enough for us to trot most of the way into town.

We got a few strange looks as I turned into school. I dismounted and lead him around to the large field around the back of the school. Nessie was waiting for me.

"I wasn't sure how long you were going to take." She said.

Swift whickered in recognition.

I had too take the rug off before the saddle because Jasper had secured the rug like an exercise sheet so I could ride him. He pulled a face as I pulled on the girth straps to undo them. I threw the rug onto his back and fastened it before taking his bridle off.

"Stay on the playing field and don't churn it up too much."

He then cantered off across the field bucking a little. I was glad I had left his boots on him.

He had attracted a crowd now. Practically everyone was standing at the edge of the field behind me and Nessie. They all seemed to lose interest when Swift settled down and started grazing.

School dragged by. In biology I was looking out of the window that looked out onto the playing fields and caught Swift staring back at me. Somehow he always knew where I was, maybe it was the 'sixth sense' that horses have. He seemed to be keeping tabs on me. Maybe he was related to Alice, she kept tabs on everyone. That made me laugh.

Lunch was pretty much the same as the day before. Matt gave me Zoey's email address. I went to check on Swift halfway through lunch I gave him my apple core. He seemed fairly happy, so I didn't stay long.

Geography was a nightmare. I hardly know anything about American geography and I was asked something about where a state was. Nessie answered for me, thankfully. That's one of my worst nightmares - being picked out in class. I have never been really good at speaking in front of people I don't really know, it seemed to get worse as I got older. I was blanked by the teacher for the rest of the lesson. _I need some tutoring, _I thought.

After school, Nessie and Matt came with me to get Swift, who was waiting patiently on the edge of the field for me.

Nessie took Swift's rug in her car, promising to drop it off on her way to La Push. Matt retrieved Swift's tack from the school office whilst I flicked the mud off of his belly and legs quickly with the dandy brush I had brought with me this morning. He easily carried the saddle on one arm and held out the bridle to me with the other. He swung the saddle up onto Swift's back and waited until I had the bridle on before doing the girth up. I jumped out of the way as Swift snaked his head out in protest to having his girth tightened.

"You should come over to the school on Saturday, if you're not busy." Matt suggested.

"I will, I need to talk to Zoey. She always has a gut feeling about things and may be able to give me an answer, something that Carlisle has been failing to do."

"He might be giving you time to settle in a bit before he drops the bombshell about the identity of your parents."

"Maybe…but surely he would have told at least Esme. She knows he's up to something. He's using a huge amount of energy keeping whatever it is from Edward. He forgets about me though. I caught him thinking about DNA tests the other day. Last night, while I was reading and everyone was out and Esme was preoccupied, I heard him in his study. So I reached out and looked through his eyes."

"What did you find?"

"He was performing a DNA test. He had mine and Esme's hairbrushes along with a small lock of his hair that no one would really notice was missing."

"Shit." We were both as confused as each other, "Considering you and Esme know something is up, I think you should back him into a corner and force the info out of him."

"That's what we plan to do. Alice knows we are planning something, but she cant see what. I gave her an element this morning to help protect her mind from Edward."

He sighed, "Good luck," he said putting a hand on my shoulder as he walked past me to his car.

I practically melted. I was sure he felt it as he was grinning as he turned and walked away.

I mounted Swift from one of the benches and let him find his own way down the path to the parking lot and through the gates onto the road. We trotted most of the way through town and then slowed to a walk when we hit the outskirts. We met a few cars on the road towards the house and they very kindly slowed right down. Swift didn't spook at all, even when a few deer fled across the road about 15 metres in front of us. He probably heard them long before I did and expected them.

I arrived home about half past four, so it only took me about half hour to walk from school on Swift. As it was quite warm, I took Swift around to the back of the house so he could have a play around in the stream. He always enjoyed splashing about. The only opportunities he had in England was gigantic dirty puddles and when I washed him for shows so it would be good for him to have a little swim around without me on his back to stop him rolling or without me telling him off for pawing at the ground and covering himself in dirt as I scrubbed him.

As I took his saddle off I glanced into the house through the glass wall. The furniture in the living room had been shifted and Carlisle and Esme were in the centre of the room dancing. I leant against Swift as I watched. They were very good, but then they had had decades to practice. It looked like a choreographed routine - no doubt Alice had come up with it and Carlisle and Esme had just taken a liking to it. The song shifted and Esme slipped her arms around Carlisle's neck and he moved his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him. They had their heads resting on the other's shoulder. I decided to turn away then. They were a cute couple and all, but it was like watching my parents.

"So much for interrogating him, eh?" I asked Swift.

He snorted and nudged me to remove him bridle.

"Alright, alright. You're so impatient, a bit like me," I laughed unbuckling his bridle and slipping it over his ears.

As soon as he was free of his tack and his boots he jumped into the water making a very loud splash and splattering water onto the glass wall of the house, making him look like a horse version of Emmett. Thank Nyx I had moved out of the way. I turned to give Esme an apologetic look and found them both laughing.

"Sorry," I said knowing they could hear me.

Esme shook her head, "don't worry" she mouthed at me.

I picked up Swift's tack and walked around to the garage and found Carlisle waiting for me.

"The stable is finished, but I would advise you to keep the tack locked in here so it's more secure. Not that anyone would actually break into a house full of vampires." He pointed over towards the corner of the meadow closest to the living room. There was a small pathway leading up to a stone block of four stables and a feed room with a small fenced in concrete yard in front of it. It looked like it had been there for ages.

"It's perfect. I don't know how to thank you." I smiled up at him.

"I'm pleased that you like it. We gathered that having stone would be more suitable than wood, especially with a stallion."

"Yeah," I agreed, "At home we had to keep moving him between the four stables so we could repair the doors and the wooden feed mangers because he kept chewing on them, especially when we first got him. He was very tense and hadn't really been broken in properly. We had to start from scratch with him it still takes a lot for him to trust someone. At shows he just absorbs the excitement from the atmosphere and he doesn't worry about people approaching him. Anyway, we eventually put creosote on the wood. That stopped him and then we could repair the wood without it being a waste of money."

"Talking of Swift, better go and see that he hasn't gone nuts and torn the garden up."

I put the tack in the locker, making a mental note to clean it, and grabbed a sweat scraper, Swift's fleece summer sheet so he could dry off and his head collar.

He was standing quite calmly beside the river with Esme. She was talking to him and telling him what a good horse he was etc.

He really did like her a lot. I slipped his head collar on and asked Esme to hold the rug. I threw the lead rope over his neck so it wasn't trailing on the ground and got to work with the sweat scraper, moving in the direction of the hair to remove the water from his coat. He pulled a face when I did the underside of his belly, but sweetened up when Esme gave him a slightly surprised look that said "you wouldn't dare". Esme had him wrapped around her little finger already.

_Maybe she spent some time with him while I was asleep, _I pondered as I threw the rug on his back and started buckling the straps. I shook the water out of his tail and his mane before taking his lead rope and leading him around to the new stable.

He snorted when I walked him through the gate into the yard, but I held the end of the rope and let him have a look around before tying him up to one of the tie rings on the fence. Carlisle had followed me and handed me a key to the padlock on the feed room door. Inside was all the feed and bedding along with my grooming and first aid kits and a new shiny wheelbarrow, shavings fork, broom and shovel.

"You didn't need to get all of this."

"Well you couldn't muck out with that old pitch fork. It would be terribly awkward."

"True," I agreed.

"We haven't done the bedding, but we made up a hay net earlier. We also came up with a solution for the muck heap."

"Use it on the garden?" I guessed

"Yeah, what we don't use will be picked up by a farmer a few miles away."

"At home we usually made a deal with the guy who delivered our hay. If he didn't need it, he always knew of someone who would be able to use it."

"I shall leave you to sort his stable out. Don't forget to lock the padlock before you come into the house. I need to have a chat with you and Esme." He said, looking down at his hands before turning to stroll at a human pace towards the house.

It took me around five minutes to lay the bed in the stable closest to the woods, so he was more insight of the house. I walked up to the tap on the side of the house next to the garage. The flat sandy path made my trip easier when I carried the two full water buckets to the stable.

I clipped them onto the bucket clips and hung Swift's hay net before I untied him and lead him into his new stable. I left him to have a look around while I went to mix his feed. Esme was waiting at the gate when I came out of the feed room.

"He knows we want to talk to him. I think he may tell us something. He's in the silent thoughtful mood that he goes into when he's going to announce something."

"Hopefully we will get some answers," I said tilting my head slightly on one side; something I had seen Esme do when thinking. Something else we had in common.

Swift kicked his door then and whickered when I turned to him, stretching out his head towards the feed bowl in my hands.

"Sorry boy," I apologised as I scooted over to his door and put the feed bowl on the space of concrete at the front of his stable. I shut the door and made sure I had done the kick bolt before I went to lock the feed room.

"Remind me to come out later and put a rug on him. It looks like its gunna be a cold night tonight."

"If you forget, I will always come down. We had lights put in and there is going to be a tap when we get a chance to fit the guy in to come and run a pipe down from the house." Esme said, holding the gate open for me.

We walked up to the house together. Carlisle was waiting in the living room for us. He was pacing - blatantly a little agitated. He stopped pacing in front of the fire place. We stood in front of the sofa, facing him.

"Firstly, I am sorry. I shouldn't have been keeping secrets, especially from two quite observant women who were determined so much to get the truth from me."

"Apology accepted." Esme and I said at exactly the same time.

"Carry on, love," Esme encouraged.

He turned to me, "I should tell you who your parents are as that is why you came here, and I am sure everyone else would like to know when they return."

I nodded.

"Your parents happen to be myself and Esme."

I froze.

Esme gasped, "You kept this from me for how long?" And then she threw herself into his arms, "you have just made my biggest wish come true!"

They both stared at me for a long moment. Then I sat down heavily on the sofa, glad that it was behind me. Esme looked at Carlisle, waiting for an explanation.

"I should have told you, but then it would have been a huge lifestyle change and too confusing for her to understand. She was very young when I had managed to trace her. The woman who carried and gave birth to her died and she was taken in by friends of hers."

I unfroze at this moment, "So, basically you had an egg cell from someone and replaced the nucleus of that cell with the nucleus from a skin cell of Esme's."

"And then it was fertilised with my sperm, yes," he finished the sentence.

"That's basically cloning. Isn't it illegal?"

"Well, we vampires do some illegal things that humans never find out about, seeing as we can pay our way."

"I had my assumptions. When I showed up, looking at Esme was like looking into a mirror, but then again, looking at you isn't much different. I mean, I have the blonde from you, and the slightly rounded chin from you. Some of the traits I have are from Esme, although you are supposed to pick them up as you age - the tilting the head on one side, the way she hides behind her hair when she's embarrassed. I'm also like you in the fact that I am quite academic and I have never wanted to drink human blood and be seen as a monster."

I looked from one parent's face to the other. Esme came and enveloped me in a very motherly hug and this time I hugged her back properly.

"I always imagined my mum would be like you," I whispered, my voice breaking a little.

"Shhh, don't cry because you will set me off," she pulled out of the hug and looked at me. The smile faded from her face. She looked at Carlisle.

"What?" I asked feeling as worried as Esme looked.

"Your Mark, it's faded slightly." Carlisle said, peering closer at my forehead.

I jumped up and jogged over to the mirror in the hall way.

"Shit, I'm not sure if that's a good thing." I said as I jogged back into the room, grabbing my school bag and heading round to the computers. I had to email Zoey immediately.

I left the computer on whilst I ate a jacket potato. Carlisle came and sat next to me while I waited for a reply to my email. The reply was in my inbox around five minutes after I had sent the email. Zoey said she would come immediately.

Carlisle called the others, telling them to come back later than they had planned, promising to explain in person.

I went down to the stable to throw a rug on Swift. It was really cold now. I decided to put a lightweight stable rug on him over his now dry summer sheet. I stood watching eat his hay for a few minutes. As I stood there I texted Matt, asking him to come over with Zoey.

I said goodnight and switched the light off before making my way back up the path to the house, using the light from the house to guide me. A car pulled up then and Zoey climbed out of the passenger side.

"Well, you have grown up quite a bit haven't you? You must have been about nine when I first met you and we started giving you vampire crash courses after school." She smiled brightly at me and I smiled back.

Matt stepped out of the driver's door and came up to me.

"You, ok?" He asked.

"I'm a little shaken up. I find out who my parents are and my Mark starts to fade."

They followed me inside. I introduced Esme and Carlisle and then we sat down.

We talked about me for roughly half an hour.

"I think the Mark may be fading because you are with your 'own kind'," she made air quotations around the words, "it might disappear, it might just fade until it can just be seen. I don't know if you will be immortal after this, or if you will undergo a change the same as your parents in a few years."

"Hmm," Carlisle said thoughtfully, "I think we may be able to test it, we shall see."

"As for the Elements, I don't know to be honest. You haven't had one of those dreams lately?"

I shook my head.

"What dreams?" Esme asked.

"Occasionally I will have a dream about something that happens between a week and a few months later. It's happened twice before and is usually to do with me. But it hasn't happened for years."

"On a brighter note, would it be ok for me to go and see Swift, or should I wait until Saturday when you visit?" Zoey asked. She had been the one who had helped me with Swift at the very beginning.

"It would be best to leave it until Saturday, he's probably snoring as we speak."

"Then I look forward to seeing you on Saturday."

I saw Zoey and Matt to the door.

"Matt, you can stay a little longer if you like, I will see you back at the school by about half eleven?"

"Ok, see you." We both waved as she drove away, before hurrying back inside.

We spent time on the computer, Matt helped with some of the catch up work I had been given.

"I'm gunna go check on Swift, wanna come with?" I asked.

"Sure," he smiled the cute half smile he had on the first day I met him, and I just melted.

When it didn't look like I was going to move, he offered me his hand. I took it without hesitating and he pulled me up.

"Just going to check on Swift, be back in about five." I said as we passed through the living room. Esme was curled up on Carlisle's lap, her head resting against his shoulder.

"Ok honey," she said looking over Carlisle's shoulder at me as I passed the sofa.

Swift needed one of his water buckets refilled. We walked up to the tap together and then carried the bucket back between us to speed up the journey as the temperature had plummeted a few more degrees.

We stood watching Swift snoozing at the back of his stable for a couple of minutes.

"I really like you, you know." Matt whispered, looking me straight in the eye.

"I really like you, too. But I have never been in a relationship so I don't know anything about having a boyfriend."

"That's fine, I don't mind. You are probably the first girl that I have felt real feeling for, like a blood imprint."

"I feel the same, its weird. I know it sounds silly, but I melt every time you smile and when you touch me its like a current ripples through my body."

"I don't think it sounds weird. I love the way you smile, it brightens up my day. And I love how you hide behind your hair when you are embarrassed and how you are so random."

I flushed bright red and ducked behind my hair slightly. He laughed and tucked a strand of hair behind my right ear.

"So how many girls have you dated?" I asked as we strolled back towards the house.

"Five, all of them pretty, but complete airheads. Two of the lasted not much longer than a week. All of them mucked me around." He sighed.

"I would never do that to you. I bet they were slimmer and prettier than me." I said, looking at the ground. He stopped me then and I turned towards him.

He lifted my chin with one hand to look into my eyes, "I don't care that you're not a stick insect, it just isn't natural. And you're not pretty, you're beautiful. that's what drew me in further after your wonderful personality."

My eyes had started to water. "Sorry," I mumbled, laughing at my self as I wiped away the tears as they started to fall.

"Don't apologise. Its ok to cry once in a while, but I hear you have been crying an awful lot recently."

"Time of the month. I usually either become angry, cry quite a bit or just go silent."

He laughed once, "kinda inevitable really, my sister gets a little like that, but she is the person you want to avoid completely. Its like Rosalie in a bad mood."

I laughed properly - my high pitched giggle.

"What? Its true though!" Matt had started laughing too, "I like your laugh, it fits your sweet personality."

We walked in through the door laughing. Esme and Carlisle turned to see what all the fuss was about. They were still in the same position from when we had left the house.

"Oh, I better go," Matt said, looking at his watch, "see you at school. Do you have transport tomorrow?"

"I will take her, I'm working the afternoon shift tomorrow," Carlisle said, "How are you getting back Matt?"

"I shall take a walk through the woods. Its not that far, do you mind if I cut across your back garden?"

"Go ahead, take care. See you soon." Esme said, smiling.

Matt smiled back at her.

"I'll see you out," I said, leading the way through the kitchen to the back door.

We walked across the lawn to the trees that ran along the bottom of the garden.

"See you later." He said, turning and heading into the trees.

"Bye," I said.

He had just disappeared when he ran back and kissed me lightly on the lips before turning and going home.

I stood there motionless. My mental shield went to pot and I discovered that Carlisle and Esme were watching. I turned, ignoring them and smiled as I walked towards the house.

_OHMYGODDESS! _My spirit was truly soaring now.

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	10. Bad Dream

I went to bed happy, but my dreams told me otherwise.

I was in a clearing, I was immobilised for some reason, all my senses apart from my sight had been cut off and I couldn't do anything about it.

There were cloaked figures all around us. A small vampire had hold of Esme, restraining her. Carlisle was being asked questions. They hit him when he didn't give the answer that they wanted. And I couldn't do anything. I didn't know why I was there.

Then they turned on Esme. I screamed at them to stop.

I woke up then, screaming for my mother for the first time in years. Esme was there in a split second, she put her arms around me.

"Shhh, it's ok, it was just a dream," she was rocking me now.

Carlisle poked his head round the door then, "You ok?" He looked at me.

I shook my head.

He came and sat on the other side of the bed, "go and call the others, they need to be home ASAP. Call Alice first."

Esme nodded and then ran off to phone everyone.

I started shaking again, so Carlisle pulled me towards him, taking over from Esme. "Want to talk about it, or shall we wait?"

"Wait," I spluttered between sobs.

"Ok." He said quietly, rubbing my arm.

Esme returned in five minutes, by which time I had started to fall asleep. Esme paused in the door way. _I do see the resemblance now. He looks like a proper Daddy. Its how I imagined he would look with our child, _she thought, smiling.

"I'm scared to go back to sleep," I murmured, leaning on Carlisle now as sleep started to take over me.

"Esme grab the duvet and a pillow."

"Huh?" I asked sleepily.

"You can sleep on the sofa, we'll wake you up when everyone is home." Carlisle said, but he could feel my heart slowing into a steady rhythm as I drifted off to sleep. He scooped me up gently and walked down the stairs at a human pace, followed by Esme. I was fast asleep before Carlisle put me down on the sofa.

I slept a little better, probably because I knew my parents were actually with me in the real world. However the dream kept replaying, with me waking before I started screaming.

I woke up at around four in the morning when Earth suddenly returned to me. Alice and Jasper were back. Jasper had to calm me down so I could tell the story to Alice.

"I had a similar vision on the way home, thankfully I wasn't driving, we probably would have crashed. It was really distracting."

"I think we should call Zoey." Carlisle said, his brow furrowing in slight confusion. Esme smoothed it out with her fingertips, smiling when he relaxed.

"No, I will wait until Saturday. I will talk to Matt tomorrow. I heard his sister has a talent for decoding dreams. She should be able to help."

"I think you should have the day off tomorrow so you can catch up on the sleep you missed." Esme said, stroking my hair.

I tried to stifle a yawn and failed. Esme sat on the arm of the sofa next my head and started singing softly.

I was asleep within seconds.

It was ten in the morning when I eventually woke up. Esme was still sitting with me, on the floor leaning against the sofa, humming as she doodled on a pad of paper. Carlisle was sitting opposite her, reading.

"Morning," he said, "did you know that you snore."

"I do not! I have friends that can confirm it. Friends that are light sleepers." I said matter-of-factly, poking out my tongue.

"Carlisle, be nice," Esme said, flicking a screwed up piece of paper at him, "She has just had the crappiest nights sleep. And if she is my daughter, then she will probably be very easily provoked. And neither I or Anna will be responsible for her actions." Esme smiled as she spoke, proving that she was only joking.

I looked over her shoulder at her drawing. Plans for redecorating hers and Carlisle's room.

"Alice wont be happy," I whispered into her ear, "I mean, you took some of the room-sized wardrobe to fit in a space for all of your blueprints."

She looked at me and smiled, "It's only a small space, just for a cupboard big enough for me to create a filing system. Any anyway, I can use some of your space. You don't have a huge amount of clothes."

"Speaking of clothes, we will need to go to England to collect all of my things and arrange other things. We're fairly lucky that I would be starting sixth form, and even luckier we go back a week later in England, because they were rebuilding the school and have to move stuff over, or we would have had a huge amount of trouble with me being over here."

"We will sort it soon enough. I think the most important thing would be to get your visa sorted so you can stay. After we have sorted this mess out with that dream you had last night." Carlisle said, putting his book on the coffee table.

At that point my phone started going off, I jumped up to answer it.

Matt.

He would be in art and could get away with anything since the teacher adored his work and he was always first finished.

"I heard, you ok?"

"Not really. I hardly slept. I have only just woken up actually."

"Sorry, I didn't wake you did I?"

"Don't apologise, of course you didn't. On Saturday I will need to speak with your sister. She is like a dream guru or something, right?"

There was a chuckle from the other end of the phone, "kinda."

"How are you even able to call me? Any normal teacher would go ape-shit on you for even having your phone switched on."

More laughter, "I have done all the work required."

"Huh."

"Ok, I used a little bribery. I promised Miss North she could have my double chocolate muffin. You heard she is going through a hard time with her dad being in and out of hospital."

"Yeah, I heard about that. Chocolate is the biggest emotional therapy."

"True, I have to go. She only gave me five minutes."

"Bye," I hung up and put my phone back on the computer desk. "He's gunna say something to his sister for me." I said to my spectators.

"How about breakfast, short-arse?" Emmett asked from behind me as he headed towards the kitchen.

Esme gawped, surely she should be used to his outbursts.

"I'm not short. I'm fun sized!" I said smiling.

"That's the best comeback I've heard. Alice usually can't think of anything to say to his insults about her height." Carlisle chuckled.

"If you spit in a blood bag and then give it to me I will be severely pissed, Emmett."

"Dang!" I heard from the kitchen, before walking through to grab a cereal bar from the cupboard.

"That's not a proper breakfast," Carlisle observed as I walked through the door.

"I generally feel really sick if I eat a proper breakfast, as in a bowl of cereal or more than half a slice of toast. And right now, toast isn't at all appealing." I said as I pulled my riding boots on.

"Where are you going?" Alice appeared at the top of the stairs.

"To see Swift."

"Dressed like that!"

I gave her a shut up/death glare.

"I am gunna ignore what you are wearing."

"Good girl. And now I have you wrapped around my little finger, you can come and help me muck out."

She groaned really loudly before following me out the front door.

Alice emptied, scrubbed and refilled the water buckets while Swift was eating his breakfast. When she had finished, she lead him out to pick at the grass and to stretch his legs whilst I mucked out.

Swift liked Alice. She was quiet, but never too quiet so that she startled him. He could nudge her roughly without fear of hurting her. His future was blank to Alice, so his presence provided a sanctuary when her visions caused her discomfort - a bit like the wolves, but minus the unpleasant wet dog smell.

"Alice, would you mind grooming him? I need to put my phone on charge. Its driving Dad crazy."

"Sure, I'd love to. Why do phones even waste the energy telling you that they are dying? It's pathetic."

I laughed before jogging up the path to the house.

I ran up the stairs and started searching through the bags I had brought with me. I started to think I hadn't brought the charger with me until I found it in a pocket in my suitcase. I ran down the stairs, jumping down the final two stairs and landing awkwardly on my right ankle. My whole leg buckled and I screamed as I felt something snap in my ankle before landing in a crumpled heap on the floor. I struggled to my feet, using the banister on the stairs to balance.

"Anna, you ok?" Carlisle asked from the top of the stairs outside his office, probably heard me scream.

I looked up at him, and shook my head, my eyes beginning to well up with tears.

"Let's have a look. Can you put weight on it?"

I shook my head.

"Ok," he said scooping me up and then carrying me into the kitchen, sitting me on the work top.

"What have you done now?" Emmett and Edward said at the same time.

Esme walked in from the garden at that point, "oh dear," she said, grabbing a tray of ice cubes from the freezer before placing them in a plastic sandwich bag and handing them to Carlisle. "What happened?" she asked, brushing my hair from my face.

I just shook my head. I couldn't talk about it without becoming hysterical and affecting Jasper, who had just walked in through the back door.

Carlisle placed the bag of ice on my ankle gently. I winced and pulled my leg from his grip, whimpering when it hurt.

Esme rubbed my back.

"I don't think it's broken, but we better take you upstairs and have a look anyway." Carlisle said, tilting my leg one way and then the other before scooping me up again. He whizzed up the stairs and we were in a room just off of his study. It was full of medical equipment, probably from when Bella was pregnant with Nessie.

I watched him as he x-rayed my ankle. He looked at the x-rays on his laptop, Edward peering over his shoulder.

"No break," Edward observed, "Ligaments?" he looked at Carlisle.

"Hmm. Seems most likely. Go and get a support bandage and find a pair of elbow crutches."

"Yay," I said, my voice shaky. "How long will I be an invalid for?"

"A few days. We will pump you full of painkillers and ice it a few times a day. You wont be able to ride for a little longer, but I'm sure Jasper will exercise him and Alice can do everything else. Esme knows his feed and how much hay he has, so she can take care of that."

Edward came back with a support bandage and applied it whilst Carlisle drove over to the hospital to grab a pair of crutches.

"How tall are you Anna?" he asked.

"About five foot five."

"I will be back in a few minutes."

Alice barged in at that moment, "I would have come sooner, but I had trouble with Swift," I raised an eyebrow, "I couldn't get him back into his stable. Then I saw you jump down the last step and hurt yourself. And then we both heard you scream. I bribed him in the end."

"You mean he sensed it?" Edward asked.

"Some horses do. They supposedly have a sixth sense." I said, a little calmer now.

Esme gave me some liquid ibuprofen. Everyone left then, probably going hunting; Charlie was coming over in a couple of hours.

Carlisle tiptoed into the room then, grabbing Esme round the waist. She squealed in surprise before joining me and Carlisle in laughing. Carlisle handed me the crutches and adjusted the height slightly.

"Have you used crutches before?"

"Twice."

"Really?"

"When I was seven, I completely tore some ligaments in my right ankle and gave myself a hairline fracture. And last July I tore a ligament in my left foot. I cant really go up or down stairs though."

"We can always carry you if need be."

I slid off the bed, and using the crutches to take a little of the weight off of my ankle, I hobbled out of the room. I went down the stairs very slowly and awkwardly and made my way into the kitchen to grab some ice and my phone charger. I put my phone on charge in the living room and collapsed on the sofa, stretching out my leg and placing the ice on my ankle.

I had been sitting there for around ten minutes when I heard a conversation via Carlisle's thoughts. Since I was injured, my shield suffered a little and I fought a losing battle to keep it in place. _"She's gunna be a handful," _he said. Esme was sitting on his lap in the study.

She looked up at him, _"until she changes, we will have to watch her every move, watch she doesn't hurt herself too much." _

He laughed and looked down into her eyes and then kissed her. _"She has your lips, and the same shaped eyes as you." So beautiful, both of them. I feel very privileged to have both of them in my life. "She has the same eye colour that I had as a human."_

"_And she gets her face shape from you and the blonde hair colour."_

"_Yes, but it has the same caramel tones that you hair does, makes her more like you. Some of her traits are very Esme too."_

"_Very 'Esme'. What does that mean Doctor?" _she giggled as he brushed his lips against the side of her neck. I left then, concentrating on the TV and forcing my shield back into it's rightful place. There was a lot of noise from the next floor. Like they didn't know it was going to mentally scar me for life.

When the ice had completely melted, I placed the bag in the kitchen sink before hobbling down to the stables.

Swift was fine. Alice had put a light rug on him and had given him his hay. She had even locked the feed room. I went back into the house and found the feed room key on the desk next to the computer. I sat back down in front of the TV again.

Esme walked down the stairs, wiping lipstick from around her mouth. Carlisle followed, straightening his tie and his arms full of paperwork.

"Don't be late." Esme said kissing him.

"I will be about half an hour, I promise." He kissed her again.

"I love you."

"I love you too," he said reaching behind her to grab his car keys.

Esme saw him pull out of the driveway before coming to sit next to me. I had my leg on a cushion on the coffee table so I didn't strain my neck when I tried to watch the TV.

"You missed a bit." I said.

"Where?"

I leant towards her and wiped the light pink lipstick off her chin.

"Thanks."

"Your welcome. Thanks for mentally scarring me."

She gave me the most startled look ever. "well-err-umm," she stuttered.

"You have to be aware that I am actually related to you and therefore I am going to be largely affected, it may seem normal to the others, but they are used to it and don't see a problem. I do. It will haunt me for a while."

"Sorry. I will have to tell that to your father."

"I'm not saying you can't, just not while I am around."

She smiled, hiding behind her hair. I was equally embarrassed.

"You also haven't buttoned up your shirt correctly, I don't think Carlisle would like Charlie staring at you very much."

She looked down, "Lucky I'm wearing a top underneath this, seeing as it's kinda see through."

"The others are back, including Nessie." I just gave up with my shield, I was using so much energy, usually it was always there, like Bella's, but when I was tired or injured I usually had to force it.

Esme hurriedly re-buttoned her shirt and set about controlling her thoughts. I wrapped my shield around her just in case.

Emmett's smug smile told me he already knew. He would tease the crap out of them later. Charlie walked on the door after Bella and froze when he saw me.

"Who's this then?" He asked, smiling and nodding at me once.

"Anna is mine and Esme's daughter. She was born in England and has only recently found out about us. The surrogate mother we were using ran off to England, and she passed away not long after Anna was born. Anna's adoptive parents recently passed on also, and she came to live with us for a while to see if she likes it over here or not." The last of that was blatantly a lie. We would probably be going to England to collect the rest of my things and sort things out with my cousin, who technically owned the house anyway. Within the next couple of weeks according to Carlisle.

I was glad I had bothered to put the concealer on today, even though my Mark had faded until it was only visible if you were really close. I didn't mind that it had faded, it looked better in a lighter blue and didn't draw a huge amount of attention to my forehead.

"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling.

"What have you done to your leg?" He asked, looking at my right leg on the coffee table.

"Tore a ligament. I jumped down the last two steps on the stairs and landed oddly. I swear my ankle ligaments hate me, I'm always doing something to them." I said, smiling.

He laughed once before following Bella to the kitchen.

I flushed bright red, "I'm so crap at meeting new people."

"You did ok, darling. We wont leave you alone together, your both about as talkative as the other." Carlisle said quietly, rubbing my shoulder before going and sitting next to Esme.

"I have dibs on the TV!" Emmett shouted, grabbing the remote from my hands.

"You could have just asked. You Americans have crap TV. I'm just glad your computers are fast so I can watch things online."

Emmett poked his tongue out at me and I returned the gesture before turning back to the TV. Carlisle laughed, his arm around Esme's waist.

"Times like this I wish I could sleep," she said, resting her head against Carlisle's shoulder.

"When Emmett has sport on? Like it's even possible, he shouts so much. You should have installed a mute button when you had the chance," I said, looking at Carlisle.

"That's quite funny," Rosalie smiled at me as she sat down next to Emmett.

"You should smile more often, it turns you from beautiful to gorgeous. Not to mention it uses less muscles than frowning."

"I think I may be growing to like you."

"I thought we were approaching acceptance into the family. We must have skipped over that while I wasn't paying any attention."

"The fact that you convinced Alice to let you dress yourself and completely surprising her made me smile. Alice being shocked isn't normal, its always funny when it happens."

"Talking about me?" Alice said.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Do you want me to let Swift out?"

"Yeah, he wont be worked today. Could you also bring all the saddles and bridles and my tack cleaning things. They should be in a bucket next to my grooming kit." Although I only ever cleaned tack if I was going to a competition, it would give me something to do while Emmett watched sport. I leant forward and grabbed my iPod off of the coffee table and put it on shuffle. Alice was back in a few minutes, followed by Charlie.

"What's happening? You getting a horse or something?"

"Already have one, his tack needs a bloody good scrub though," I turned to Alice, "could you grab me one of the dining chairs please?"

I turned back to the bridles sitting in my lap and began untangling them. I caught Esme's expression out of the corner of my eye.

"I'm only using it to hang the bridles off of whilst I clean them, it wont hurt the chair."

"Hmm," she said, resting her head back on Carlisle's shoulder.

Alice returned with the chair and I set to work cleaning Swift's jumping bridle. Everyone apart from Jasper, Charlie, Emmett and Nessie watched me take the bridle apart and put the bit in the bucket of warm water to soak. I wiped the leather down with a sponge, removing all the grease before applying the saddle soap. I put the bridle back together whilst the bit sat on my knee to dry out.

When I had finished that bridle I moved onto the double bridle and repeated the process without bothering to take the bridle apart.

The saddles took me around two minutes each, but I made sure I went and checked all of the stitching on everything so it was safe to use.

"What does your horse look like?"

"He's grey. Why?"

"There is a horse staring at us through the window."

I looked over to the window, and sure enough Swift was there, staring straight at me.

He wanted to know why Alice was taking care of him.

"I better go and see what he wants," I said grabbing the crutches and going over to the front door. I hobbled down the porch step and over to him. "What are you doing? Didn't Alice tell you to stay near the stables?"

He just blinked at me. And bent his head down, sniffing my right ankle.

"Yeah, again. I know." I leant all my weight on one crutch and raised my hand to rub his forehead.

"Something isn't right, is it?" Carlisle said from behind me.

"No. I think he's trying to be as close to me as possible. Maybe he heard me screaming last night."

He put a hand on my shoulder, "Maybe he knows why you had that dream. Part of his sixth sense."

I shook my head, "He would possibly know a day or two before and he would be very over protective. Like you would be if Mum was in danger. You would do everything in your power to make sure she's safe. He'd be like that, but worse and he would be dangerous to anyone he didn't know."

Carlisle nodded, "well we can find out more about that dream tomorrow. Shall I put a rug on him? It is a little cold."

"The navy blue turnout rug. Thanks."

I sat on the porch steps whilst Carlisle rugged up my horse. Swift liked his quiet and calm nature, it was soothing to him. Swift went off to graze again, knowing I was ok.

I realised then that I was an idiot for sitting down. I couldn't get up. "Problem. I cant get up."

"You are your mother's daughter alright. She was an unbelievably clumsy human and has always done something and realised it doesn't work afterwards. Once, she was renovating a house and tried to be clever by making the kitchen a little smaller to make the living space bigger. She didn't leave enough room for the fridge and tried to put it into this ridiculously small gap, taking half the kitchen worktops down in her effort. 'Problem' was exactly what she said when I turned up to see the finished product."

"Like you don't have your flaws, oh loving and faithful husband." Esme said from behind me smiling.

"Like what?" He said, challengingly.

"Come back to me on that one."

He looked down at me, "want me to pick you up?"

"I feel like a small child right now, but what choice do I have?"

He scooped me up and took me into the kitchen.

"I'll be seeing you Carlisle, Esme." Charlie was just about to leave, "nice to meet you Anna. You look so much like your mother, but there is definitely Carlisle in there somewhere."

I smiled at him before he walked past.

Carlisle put me on the kitchen worktop and went over to a cupboard in the corner and got me some more painkillers.

"What time is it?" I asked sleepily. I picked up the bottle of liquid ibuprofen.

Drowsy.

"It's half past eight." Carlisle said, holding out his hand for the bottle.

"Your joking. I'm going to bed."

"You should eat something," Carlisle said, looking closely at my eyes.

"I would if I wasn't so damn tired. Why did you give me the drowsy stuff anyway? I probably wont sleep as long as I should, especially if I sleep now." My eyelids were beginning to feel very heavy and my words were running together.

"Just eat some toast, ok?"

"Fine," I muttered, folding my arms. "Grab me some more ice please."

Carlisle held the ice on my ankle whilst Esme shoved a slice of bread in the toaster.

"Carlisle, she's falling asleep." I heard Esme say, but she sounded very distant.

Carlisle picked me up again and I didn't bother opening my eyes. As we walked through the living room I heard Rosalie walk up to us.

"She looks so much more breakable when she's asleep. I hope she doesn't mind how rude I've been."

"I think your softening up Rose. I think having someone that can easily kick your butt blindfolded in the house seems to have made you respect her more than the first day," Emmett said, blatantly winding her up.

I fell asleep then.

* * *

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	11. Zoey

I woke up in a room completely different from my own, immediately wondering if I had started sleep walking. Then I remembered it would be more like sleep hobbling rather than sleep walking. Carlisle walked in then and went over to the mirror on the opposite side of the room to do his tie.

"Where am I?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"Mine and Esme's room. You started screaming about two minutes after we left your room. I think you had that dream again. You were more settled in here, especially when we were both in here. You are quite fascinating when you're asleep."

"What?" I asked, still half asleep.

"You look so much like a small child, so vulnerable. Human even. You do remind me so much of your mother when you're sleeping. She looks so peaceful, when she occasionally pretends to sleep."

"Yeah…" I said, raising an eyebrow before swinging so my legs were hanging off of the bed, "I'll go now, let you get dressed."

"No need, we use the wardrobe to dress. It's about the size of this room. You cant go far anyway; the crutches are downstairs."

"I knew there was a flaw to my daring escape plan," I said, giving a half smile and making Carlisle laugh. I heard another laugh come from the en suite bathroom. Esme emerged, sweeping pale lipstick onto her lips.

I looked at her, "Like you need make-up."

"I'm going out today, Alice always insists I wear make-up. You better hurry up and get dressed, your father will be dropping you off at the vamp school on his way to work."

"It sounds weird. I mean calling you Mum and Dad."

"It didn't sound weird when you called for me the other night," Esme said, stroking my hair out of my eyes, "it sounded perfectly normal. Would have been more settling if you weren't screaming." She smiled.

"Can someone take me so I can get dressed. I look like I have been dragged through a hedge backwards."

"I will," Emmett said from the doorway.

I began to protest, but he just grabbed me and put me over his shoulder, like a fireman. I folded my arms and stared at the floor as he walked towards my room.

"Emmett, put me down! The blood rushing to my head and is giving me a headache."

He handed me to Carlisle, who cradled me gently. He set me down on the bed and then left. Alice appeared then.

_Oh Nyx, save me! _"Alice, however much I like you being my little big sister, I don't need you to dress me."

"But I like dressing you up. I was deprived of being myself in my human life," she said sadly, sticking out her bottom lip a little.

"Oh, you know how to put a bloody guilt trip on, don't you?"

She just grinned widely and went over to the wardrobe.

While she went through the wardrobe, she muttered to herself. I watched her as I plucked my eyebrows and did my eye make-up. Alice chose to put me in a pair of my blue jeans and my purple checked shirt. I managed to convince her that I should wear trainers because of my ankle, although she wanted to put me in a ridiculously high pair of heels belonging to Rosalie. Rosalie didn't mind me borrowing them, but managed to help me bribe Alice out of her mindset.

"Ready?" Carlisle poked his head around the door when Alice was complaining about the shoes. Carlisle agreed with myself and Rosalie, leaving Alice outnumbered.

"Yeah."

As he carried me down the stairs, we discussed the whereabouts of the school, which was in an old castle-like building called Marlborough Manor.

"It's not even in Seattle. It's closer to Forks than Seattle. But then again, not many people have heard of Forks and it's easier to follow directions from Seattle," Carlisle said thoughtfully.

"Can we go and see Swift before we go?" I asked when Carlisle grabbed the crutches and went to put me down.

"Ok, we will be quicker if I carry you."

Swift was in his stable and Jasper was mucking out around him, throwing dirty shavings into the wheelbarrow that he had wedged in the doorway.

"Alice roped you into mucking out then?" I laughed.

"Yes. She saved the glamorous job of grooming to herself. Would you like me to ride him?"

"If you like. Make sure you have a good contact, but don't put too much pressure on his mouth because he will fight you, and he will win. He is fairly responsive, so use your leg lightly. I would put the loose ring snaffle onto his jumping bridle, he doesn't need the three ring gag for flatwork."

"What saddle?"

"The general purpose or the dressage saddle. The jumping saddle is purely for when I jump him and the GP I use cross-country and when I am just schooling him, so that would be best."

"Ok. Good luck with finding out about that dream and your new Affinities."

"Thanks," I said smiling slightly.

Carlisle carried me to the car and placed me in the passenger seat. Esme slipped in behind me.

"Where you going?" I asked, looking over my shoulder.

"To buy more food. Jacob ate most of it the other day. And seeing as I don't drive, I have to catch a lift."

I nodded once.

It took us about ten minutes to find the school. Matt was waiting at the big oak front door for me. Esme helped me out of the car and then slipped into the front seat. Matt walked over to me shaking his head in disbelief.

"Can you go for one day without hurting yourself?" He asked jokingly.

"Blatantly not. I jumped down the two bottom stairs and landed on my ankle funny."

"You haven't broken anything, though?"

"No, I tore a ligament. They seem to have something against me."

We both laughed for a minute.

"I will call when I want picking up," I said turning to the car.

"My shift finishes at three this afternoon, so I may not be able to pick you up, so I would give Emmett a call if you cant get hold of me." Carlisle said, looking at his watch.

"Why Emmett?" Esme asked.

"Because he can be sure she can't do anything stupid. Anyway, Alice and Jasper are keeping an eye on Swift, Rosalie is teaching her art class, Edward and Bella are out all day, Nessie wouldn't be able to keep her out of trouble and she can't stand Jacob."

"There was no need for the lecture," Esme said, poking out her tongue at him.

I laughed, "I'll see you later."

We watched them drive off.

"Shall we see Emma or Zoey first?" Matt asked, walking slowly so I could keep up.

"Emma..?"

"My sister. She is two years older."

"Better see her first and then Zoey may be able to pick something out of her definition of my dream as to why I have Affinities for the five elements."

Emma was a very pretty brunette, with piercing blue eyes and was not much taller than Alice. We found her in the stables with her horse, Goliath. The name suited him; he must've been about seventeen hands and was dark mahogany bay.

"Been in the wars?" She asked, nodding towards my right ankle.

"Yeah. This was my own clumsiness though, nothing to do with my horse." I said laughing.

We talked about Swift as we walked, very slowly, towards the girls' dorm. We went into an empty room just off of the main common room on the ground floor of the dorm. The room was currently serving as a small library. We sat at one of the small tables and I gave as detailed account as I could of my dream.

When I had finished speaking, Emma looked up into the top corner of the room and chewed on her bottom lip.

"You mentioned that Alice had a similar vision, but with less detail."

I nodded.

"And that you have had strange dreams before that have been things that happened about a month after their occurrence?"

I nodded again.

"I think that you may have someone, loyal to the Volturi, that has been keeping an eye on the Cullens' for some reason or another and now that you have shown up, they have a reason to get involved with the biggest coven they have ever seen."

"Well, that seems to make sense," I said after a moment, "they did visit when they heard of Nessie's existence, thinking she was an immortal child. Their intention was to destroy the Cullens' but they left without fulfilling that."

"So, you're saying they may have found another excuse to attack? Interesting."

"Yeah," I replied, raising an eyebrow.

"A few of the horses have been acting up lately. It's like they know someone is prowling around. Maybe this...informant…has found another reason for the Volturi to…visit."

"Shit." I said, biting my lip.

"We will stand with you if anything happens," Matt said, putting an arm around my shoulder and kissing my hair.

"Thanks. We will be going to England next weekend to sort everything else out."

"Want me to come with?" Matt asked.

"It should be fine, we'll only be a couple of days," I smiled weakly.

My phone went off then.

Alice.

"The Volturi, they are planning on attacking us." She spat down the phone in a rush.

"What? When?" I asked, just as panicked as Alice.

"Maybe a month from now, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know why they would attack though. I think it's a human informant they have."

"Ok, thanks for calling me," I hung up.

"They are attacking us in around a month. Alice thinks the informant is human."

They both gave me frightened expressions.

"We should go and see Zoey," Matt broke the silence.

Emma and I nodded.

"Here's my phone number and my email. Let me know if anything else happens. Dreams, Alice's visions - I need to know so I can come and help. If my little brother is helping, so am I." She smiled, thrusting a piece of paper into my hand, which I immediately shoved into the pocket of my jeans.

We went over to the main school building and up a long corridor to the teachers lounge.

Zoey was waiting for us. We told her everything that Emma had said and about Alice's phone call.

"That gives a very clear reason as to why you are so gifted. It's to protect your family."

"That makes the most sense," I said, nodding thoughtfully.

"The fading Mark, on the other hand, I'm not too sure about. I have an idea, but I'm not convinced. There is what I said when I visited the other day and two other ideas I have been pondering over the past few days."

"Tell me anyway," I said after a moment.

"I think that you may have been Marked to protect you until you had the opportunity to find your parents and now that you have found them, it has faded. I don't think it will fade completely, though."

"Why?" Matt asked, tilting his head slightly onto one side.

"It's part of who you are. You would still be in England, with no idea of your true identity if you hadn't been Marked. It opened a door to your life. I would still advise the concealer when in company of humans, but you may be able to use a normal, everyday type, instead of what the House of Night supplies. The second idea is that you may be slipping back into being a human and you will be a complete vampire when changed by the use of venom, but again the Mark wont fade completely."

I thought it over.

"My gut tells me it's more likely to be the last one I told you."

I thanked Zoey and got up to leave, thinking about what she had said. Matt had walked ahead to get the door.

"He's your soul mate," Zoey whispered in my ear.

"Huh?"

"Let him know that you have the same feelings for him," she whispered, "good luck," she said in a normal voice, "I wont come and see Swift today, seeing as you are unfit to ride."

"Ok, you will have to come and see him next weekend, I'm not sure who is coming to England with us, and he may need exercising if Jasper has any problems with him. I will email you at some point this week."

I hobbled over to the door and we walked slowly down the corridor.

I stopped.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"I really like you. I know I've said it before, but it's like I am feeling what I see between my parents. It's like we're…"

"Soul mates." We said together.

We stared at each other for a long minute before laughing. He pulled me into a tight hug, kissing the top of my head. I leant against him taking my weight off of my crutches so I could hug him properly. I felt safe. I felt whole in his arms.

"I thought I would be an old spinster," I said into his shoulder.

He released me, holding me up while I sorted my crutches out again.

"Do you want me to carry you to the door?" He asked, seeing the faint bruises on my hands.

"Can you manage? I'm not saying you wont, it's just that I'm quite heavy."

"I'm a lot stronger than I look, a bit like Jasper."

I heard barking then and a black and white Border Collie came running up to us.

"Hey, Shadow!" Matt said, stooping to fuss over the dog.

"Shadow meet Anna," he said.

I bent down a little to scratch the dog's ears.

"He's lovely, you his human?"

"Yep. Most vamps have cats, I have a dog and you have a horse."

"We're a right bunch of outcasts then."

We laughed and Matt picked me up and cradled me in his arms, without seeming to use any effort. Shadow carried on down the corridor.

"He's spoilt by Zoey. I think I should put him on a diet or he'll be huge, what with all the treats see slips him."

We had reached the door and I grabbed my phone out of my pocket. It was three. I called Carlisle.

He picked up on the first ring.

"He's going to be about fifteen minutes."

Matt lead me over to a bench near the front door of the school. I leant against his shoulder and he put his arm around me.

"Can I have a kiss?" He asked, "don't worry, know one is around to make you feel embarrassed."

"I don't see why not," I smiled.

He tilted my chin up with his hand and pressed his lips lightly to mine, separating them a little. He pulled away and I snuggled against his shoulder again.

"You're a real gentleman. You are treating me with a great deal of respect. I think any other guy would take advantage of the fact I have never been with anyone before."

"My mother raised me to be a gentleman. She was working unbelievably hard to support me and my sister before we were Marked. When we came here and took our two horses with us, her financial struggle eased. She remarried not too long ago and things have only got better. She was able to keep her horse and my grandfather's young racehorse who may be coming here as a project for Emma, as she wants to work with racehorses."

"What about your dad?"

"He has a whole yard full of horses. The marriage worked for a while, but they were too alike. Personality clash. They agreed it was never going to work, but they remain great friends. She actually works at his yard so that we can keep Lottie there - the racehorse. The other horses are at home, along with our old ponies."

Carlisle's car pulled into the drive then and I grabbed my crutches and got up.

"I'll see you in school," I said.

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	12. England

The following week consisted of packing and organising flights. I went to school as normal and had to repeat the story of why I was on crutches to everyone. I ditched the crutches on Wednesday and was able to walk without a limp by Friday morning.

I sat outside and watched Jasper schooling Swift. He really was an exceptional rider, but then again, Swift was a relatively easy ride if you knew him. Jasper had started to teach Alice too. She looked completely at home on his back and Swift seemed to enjoy having a lighter rider on his back.

We decided that Esme and Carlisle would come with me, along with Emmett to help us with carrying things and Alice to help me pack everything.

We went straight from school to the airport on Friday. I slept through most of the flight. The drive from the airport was fairly short, seeing as the house where I had lived until recently was in Berkshire, which is about a hour journey (if that) from London.

I had emailed my cousin about all of the events and she agreed to meet us at the house as she couldn't leave her very pregnant mare Lily.

When we arrived at Starlight Cottage, I instructed Carlisle to drive around the back of the house to the stables.

I jumped out of the car and not only found my cousin, Sarah, waiting for me, but my best friend Charlie.

We squealed when we saw each other and half ran, half walked at each other and then enveloped each other in a huge hug, jumping up and down.

"I cant believe you're here!" We said simultaneously.

"I knew I should have bought earplugs!" Sarah said, laughing, before hugging me.

"How's Lily?" I asked.

"About to drop, come and see her. I think it may be tonight, you will be able to tell more though seeing as you read into it when we first thought about breeding from her."

Lily was in her stable at the end of the 'L' shaped block. She was a fifteen three hands, chestnut Dutch warmblood. She was huge.

I clicked my tongue, announcing my presence. She lifted her head to look at me with slightly tired eyes. I let myself into the stable and ran my hands down her neck and along her back to her hindquarters. The muscles across her croup were slack. Her udder was also very full. It was probably going to be tonight.

"I think, you're right," I said, patting the mare's neck lightly and turning to exit the stable.

Esme, Carlisle, Alice and Emmett had just joined us and I introduced them, before poking my head over the next stable door to where Sarah's young, bright bay show jumper, Jack, was standing, picking at his hay.

"He looks well. Has he been going ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, we are up to jumping four foot now. I don't think I will push him too much now. I will let him sort his technique out before raising the height any more. And I have a job as the stable jockey at Sapphire Stud." She smiled.

"No way! I bet you end up being head girl before long. At least it's really close so you can stay here. Isn't it supposed to be really good pay?"

She nodded, "they offered to help me with Lily and also with Jack, seeing as they mainly breed show jumpers."

I walked to the next stable, finding it empty.

"Where's Eric?" Eric was the chocolate dun Connemara pony we had shared for a while, until Sarah shot up and swamped him. We had semi-retired him when I had acquired Swift and he would be approaching eighteen come the following May (five months and twelve days older than me). And I absolutely adored him. He was hilarious at some of the things he did for example, he liked to drink out of the hosepipe. Although he was a difficult ride compared to Swift, I really missed the challenge of riding him.

"He's out in the field, stuffing his face on the little grass he's allowed," she laughed. He had been on a permanent diet for years now.

We walked around the back of the stables to one of the three fields that we had, and sure enough, Eric was standing in the middle of the field grazing.

I let myself into the field and walked towards him with his head collar. He looked up at my approach and started shoving as much grass in his mouth as he could. I pulled his head up gently and he sighed, giving in. I slipped the head collar on and lead him up to the gate.

"Shall we give you a groom then? It may be the last one I give you," I hated that fact. I wouldn't be able to take him with me to my new life in America.

Charlie helped me remove the mud from his darkening coat. As we worked I told her of what had been happening. She was very interested in Matt and laughed when I told her about my ankle.

"He sounds perfect! You need to send me pictures."

"Please stop fanaticising over my dad and brother. If Rosalie heard, she would kill you. And my Mum is rarely seen angry, like me."

"And you are very scary when angry."

"Yes."

"Oh, I see."

"You're still as slow as ever, I see."

Sarah came up behind me, "Ride him if you want. He is still very fit, I have been doing what I can with him. I jumped him the other day. He was a bit of an idiot, spooking a lot, but flying over simple fences as soon as he got going."

"Typical," I muttered.

I went into the tack room and found my spare hat and collected his saddle and double bridle. Luckily my ankle was heavily strapped up so I wouldn't do any further damage to it.

I exercised him for about half an hour, working in circles in the sand school that was built with the stables. I let him have a little extended canter up the long side of the school. Charlie had gone home to collect a change of clothes seeing as she was staying round tonight to help with the packing.

As I walked Eric around on a loose rein to cool him off, I started crying. Silent tears slid down my face.

"What's wrong?" Esme asked when I had dismounted near the gate.

"I don't think I could leave him behind, but I don't think he would cope with the flight," I said, my voice shaking.

She enveloped me in a tight hug.

"We can talk to the vet about it, see if he would be ok to travel," Sarah said from the gate, "I don't think I would be able to keep him on top of the other horses and we need a spare stable as I have been put in charge of a young stallion, and then there's the foal too. You always got on better with him anyway."

"Why is the vet coming?" Alice asked from the gate.

"Jack needs to be sedated for the dentist. That's why he is hiding at the back of his stable," Sarah laughed.

We put Eric back in his stable and begun packing my spare riding hat, velvet show riding hat and body protector along with any rugs I had missed and my show jackets into a large trunk. Alice and me wrapped the hats in bubble wrap and we padded them in the trunk with the rugs to make sure they didn't get damaged on the flight home.

Charlie had reappeared when we had finished and we set to work on all the things in my room, uncovering old memories as we did so. We collected a huge amount of things suitable for eBay and charity shops. When we had done everything that was going on a freight flight at nine that evening the vet, Dr Olivia Samson, arrived.

While we waited for the horse dentist to show up, I asked her about travelling Eric to America.

"He travels fine in the horsebox?"

"Yeah, he has moments loading, but it's only him being stubborn. Usually if you get a lunge line on the side of the horse box and go to take it behind him, he shoots up the ramp."

We both laughed.

"He may have to be sedated for the flight. Many horses are, sometimes mid flight. I will check him over when we are done with Jack."

They had to pin Jack in the corner to inject him with the sedative that took about three minutes to kick in. The dentist set to work as soon as it kicked in, rasping Jack's teeth down to even surfaces. Whilst this carried out, Dr. Samson did a full health check on Eric, getting Sarah to trot him up to check for lameness, seeing as I couldn't run.

As she checked him over, she filled out a sheet. _Probably certificate of health, declaring he can fly, _I laughed slightly, _not literally though, that would just be weird. He could travel there himself then._

"I don't see no reason why he cant fly, but I would advise travelling with him. I am due to fly two broodmares over to Seattle tomorrow at about noon, so I could travel with him. But you being present would help a great deal as he is more likely to be calmer around you, however much he loves me." She looked down to where Eric was licking the sleeve of her coat.

"Thank you," I said smiling.

"I will travel with you," Carlisle said.

We both nodded. It was best.

"Just one question. How often does his bronchitis take hold?" Dr. Samson asked.

"Usually just in the spring. Pollen and also the dust can make him start coughing. We just put him on a ten day course of Ventapulmin and he is usually fine."

"Good job we have to travel them on shavings anyway. I shall see you in the morning."

I ran over to the house as best I could, "he can travel!" I nearly shouted.

"That's wonderful!" Alice said, giving me a quick hug.

The evening went pretty slowly. Charlie, Sarah and myself ate and the others had some blood we had stocked up in the fridge.

At about eight, Emmett left with my belongings to make sure they arrived in one piece.

We were sat in front of the TV at around half nine when I heard a pulse of pained thoughts that were not human. I jumped up and headed out of the backdoor, followed by Sarah and my parents. I stopped at the edge of the concrete yard; a signal to stop and stay quiet.

Sure enough there was a low grunting coming from Lily's stable. I used my phone screen as a dim torch to illuminate the stable. Lily was flat on her side, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

"Should we do something?" Carlisle asked.

I shook my head, "we should only intervene if she has any difficulty."

We sat just inside the door and waited.

After about five minutes we saw the foal move. I looked at Sarah and she nodded.

"Here we go," she whispered.

A couple of minutes later the foal's front legs appeared. Me and Sarah both let out the breath we had been holding.

"What?" Carlisle asked, looking completely lost as to what to do. Usually he would be in charge of a situation like this, but now he had no power.

"The foal should be presented forefeet first, with the head between the knees, followed by the shoulders, the rest of the body and then the hind legs. If the foal was breach, we would be in a great deal of trouble. We would need the vet here."

He nodded.

We settled back to watch again. The foal's head had appeared now. Another five minutes later, the foal had officially arrived. We had all scrubbed our hands and arms while we had waited. Sarah jumped up to break the amniotic sac, as it had not broken by itself.

Lily sat up then and turned to look at her foal, who was already squirming to get closer to her. She pulled herself up and began to lick her foal. Sarah immediately got her phone out and started taking pictures. She switched to video when the foal started trying to stand.

We all laughed when the foal fell down twice. But eventually it managed to pull itself up shakily and then hobbled over to Lily's flank and began to suckle.

"First milk is very important. Contains essential antibodies. Foals generally don't live long without it," Sarah said.

"What would happen if the foal didn't suckle?" Esme asked, smiling at the foal.

"You have to guide it. If it is rejected by the dam, for whatever reason, you need to phone the vet to get the mare milk replacement off of them. Then you phone the foaling bank saying you have a foal in need of a foster mother. Once there was a mare that took on a foster foal alongside her own foal."

I got up and walked towards Lily, holding out my hand. She sniffed my hand and allowed me to walk closer. I put one arm around the foal's chest and one around it's hindquarters. I sent calming thoughts to it and, instead of squirming, it stood perfectly still. Sarah took a picture.

"Colt," I said, smiling.

I let him walk back to his mother.

We left them both then and walked back to the house. I looked at the pictures closely. He was black.

"He might be grey like his daddy," I said to no one in particular

"How? He's a very dark colour," Carlisle asked.

"Greys are born black or bay and lighten as they age. Foals generally change colour."

"Who is his father?"

"Swift is," I said, grinning.

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	13. Homeward Bound

Me and Charlie shared my old double bed and we both woke at around eight. Neither of us had had enough sleep. We went straight out onto the yard and found Esme and Carlisle watching the foal.

Charlie poked her head over the door and squealed quietly, "he's so cute!"

"I know, right?" I said, laughing at her reaction. She would have fainted if she had seen him being born.

Carlisle had his arms around Esme's waist, "I think he needs a name. I don't think 'The Foal' will be able to stick for very long," he chuckled.

"I would pick something to do with his coat colour," Charlie suggested.

I shook my head, "his coat colour will change."

"We did take huge chance breeding him, seeing as Lily miscarried two foals and gave birth early to the last one while we were at school and rejected it. We did hand rear him for a couple of days, but he wasn't developed enough and had a huge bout of colic. We decided it was better to put him to sleep." Sarah said, leaning on the door next to me and Esme.

"That's it," I smiled.

"What's it?" Esme asked.

"I have a name for him. Chance."

"That seems a good name. What about a show name?" Sarah asked, tilting her head on one side as she thought the name over.

"Starlight Long Shot."

"Long Shot is also a brilliant song by Kelly Clarkson," Charlie pointed out.

I nodded in response.

"Chance," Sarah said. The foal turned to look at her, before walking a couple of steps towards the door. She smiled, "it fits."

Chance then walked to the back of the stable and lay down flat out on his side and proceeded to sleep.

The vet arrived then. She checked both over, commenting on how well Lily looked for giving birth to such a large foal without assistance.

After a quick breakfast of toast, Alice and Charlie helped me pack my clothes. When we were done, my room was very bare. Everything I owned was on its way to my new home. I would miss England.

"Remember to come visit at least twice a year. I will keep the room the same. I might even have to turn it into some sort of shrine for you," Sarah smiled.

We laughed.

"You have to send me photos of Chance and that new stallion when he arrives."

"Before I forget. I have something that Julie wanted you to have. Remember how she trained Swift to be ridden in a side saddle?"

I nodded.

"She also promised to teach you, but then she got the horrible back problem and couldn't."

We walked into the room that had once belonged to my adoptive parents. Sarah walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a tack trunk. Inside was a fairly new side saddle, complete with the special girth, stirrup and saddle pad.

"She wanted you to have it. It will just gather more dust if it stays. I planned to give it to you for your seventeenth, like she had asked, but I would probably forget."

I just threw myself into her arms, "thank you."

We stood there hugging each other for a long moment before we were interrupted by Esme.

"The vet gave Eric some calmer paste. She told me to tell you. She said he probably wont need to be sedated, seeing as he is naturally calm."

"He will be asleep before long," I laughed.

She walked over to me, where I had picked up the saddle to inspect the stitching for wear and tear. It had only been used twice, seeing as Swift picked up the concept in the first session. After that, Julie's back problems had sprung up.

"I rode side saddle once or twice," Esme said.

"Really?"

"When I turned thirteen, my mother thought it was unhealthy to be seen on the back of a horse. We only had the one horse. A hunter I think he was. My father took him foxhunting a few times, but used him as transport until we got a car. Ridiculous, unsafe things to begin with," she smiled at the memory.

I packed the trunk full of Eric's tack and rugs into the horsebox before leading a very lethargic Eric up the ramp. He dawdled straight up and didn't shove me out of the way when I didn't hang his hay net up quick enough, like he usually did.

_That's some strong calmer paste, even though he had the recommended amount for a pony half the size of him._

Dr. Samson drove the horsebox to the airport. Carlisle came with us, along with Alice so she could drive the horsebox back to the house for Sarah. Sarah had given her a crash course in how to drive the five year old horsebox.

When we arrived at the airport, Dr. Samson and another vet were the only ones who were allowed to handle Eric. They got him loaded fairly quickly, although he did protest when he saw the plane. They bribed him with a bucket full of pony nuts in the end and he forgot all about being on a plane.

The tack trunk was loaded after him along with the belongings of the two mares flying with him.

Carlisle, the vets and I had our passports checked and then we were off. Alice had already left with the horsebox. She would be flying back with Esme and my clothes later the same day.

The vets put earplugs on the horses and stood with them whilst the plane took off. Eric jumped a little, but the calmer was working and he relaxed once we were airborne.

I fell asleep leaning against Carlisle's shoulder.

The next thing I remember was being lifted from a car.

"Go back to sleep, Alice and Esme will be home soon," he said quietly.

"Where's Eric?" I asked yawning.

"Quarantine. He's going to be there for about a week. Like Swift was, but then again you weren't in the country whilst Swift was in quarantine."

I drifted back into a deep sleep.

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	14. Early Visitors

I woke early the next morning, around half five. _My body clock is seriously screwed up, _I thought as I dragged myself out of bed and walked stiffly down the stairs.

"Morning," Edward said as I walked into the kitchen.

I just grunted at him, making him raise his eyebrows before turning back to his book.

_I'll wait a few hours until she is more awake, _he thought, chuckling once.

I grabbed a drink and went and sat in front of the TV with Alice. Esme was doodling on a notepad again and looked up as I fell onto the sofa with a loud 'thump'.

"Are you ok?" She asked, tilting her head to the right as she surveyed my expression.

I looked up, scaring her a little with the tired glare I gave her, "what?"

"You were screaming last night. Carlisle even sat with you, but you wouldn't wake up. You seemed to stop after we had come home. He was reluctant to leave for work."

I blinked at her. I didn't remember having the dream again.

"I had another vision," Alice said after a moment of silence.

We looked at her.

"It was awful. I wasn't an onlooker this time. I was being tortured. Carlisle was on the floor a few metres from me and I was being hit repeatedly. There was someone screaming too. Screaming at the vampires hurting me to stop."

I stared at her, my eyes wide.

"What?"

"You had the vision from Mum's point of view. The person screaming was me."

"Their close to finding out more," Alice said, chewing on her lip.

"They're vampires?"

She nodded.

"We need to alert the House of Night. Then we can have the Sons of Erebus."

"Who?" Emmett asked from the computer.

"Erebus is Nyx's consort. The Sons of Erebus are the most talented fighters we have. The role of the male vampires has always been to protect. We are a very matriarchal society."

He snorted, "cant be much better than me."

"Emmett, I'm sorry to say they are. They don't even fight for fun, like you do."

He just looked at me.

"They fight to the death. I know you would for Rosalie, but they fight for the high priestesses of Nyx, for Nyx herself, or for the vampire they have sworn their warriors oath to."

"Yeah, I would only fight to the death for this family. No one else."

I put my drink on the coffee table and looked at Alice.

"I think, that I'm gunna call Emma. She needs to know."

I picked up my phone and walked down to the stables. Swift was agitated. He knew something. I looked into his head, trying to investigate.

_Noises, at night…human…evil…_ His thoughts were incoherent.

Keeping that in mind, I phoned Emma.

I wasn't the only one that had been dreaming.

She had a disturbing dream the other night, whilst we were in England. It involved her being asked questions about who I was, why I was created, what was the House of Night, "how dare they rise against us" - the Volturi.

I hung up and sprinted to the house as best I could and started shouting once I was in the door.

"Emma knows the day of their attack!" I screamed as I fell through the door, gasping for air.

"What!" Alice, Edward, Bella and Emmett asked.

"Saturday, we have to ask quarantine to keep Eric longer, its not safe for him. I need to learn to fight, I need to learn to project my physical shield!" I spat out the words.

Esme called Carlisle and told him what had happened.

He was at home within ten minutes. He came straight over to me, worried I was going into a state of shock; I hadn't moved from where I stood behind the sofa.

"Bella can help you with the shield, Jasper and Emmett can teach you to fight," he said, grasping the tops of my arms and giving me a stiff shake.

"I will give you this advice; keep the mental shield around everyone, we need to be protected, Bella can only do so much with her shield," Edward said as he paced.

By ten that morning, I could project my shields one hundred metres from my body with little effort, moulding them to the people I had to protect. The fighting was coming along, but we decided to leave that to the boys and the Sons of Erebus seeing as they had the experience.

Zoey, Matt, Emma and a handful of warriors showed up at midday, along with gifted friends of Zoey's.

We talked about strategies, looking at a map of a large field, where my family enjoyed playing baseball.

"They will be coming from the East," Alice told us.

"I think we should get the wolf packs involved," I said thoughtfully.

"There would be no element of surprise, since they already know of them," Carlisle said looking out of the front floor to ceiling windows.

"Yes, but they will think that it's just the wolves, us and the Denali coven."

"I see her point," Jasper said from the corner, "we could have the warriors far enough away so we cant hear their heartbeats, but their reflexes are as good as ours, so they could be with us in less than a second."

"I don't want you to fight," Carlisle looked from me to Esme and back again.

"It's my battle. I have to fight," I said the words slowly with a sense of finality, glaring at him slightly.

He didn't press the matter further.

Nessie, Matt and I didn't go to school the following week. We spent the week at Marlborough Manor, briefing the vampires of what we expected would happen. All the gifted vampires and the talented fighters vowed to help us. Jasper and Emmett did a little training with those that would be fighting with us.

We spent a large amount of time with Swift, seeing as he would be joining us on the battle field if anything went wrong. We were sure that the Volturi wouldn't expect him. Although he could end up being a snack for them, he was a strong as any of the members of my family, and deadly when angry, or if I was in any danger.

On Tuesday, Kate, Tanya, Eleazar and Carmen arrived. They informed me of what had happened when they discovered Nessie and how long it had taken to convince them that she wasn't a threat. They also told me how they wanted a fight, but Aro didn't see any reason, so they left.

"So, this could be an excuse for them to pick a fight with the biggest coven around, other than themselves," I asked, chewing on my lip.

"Yeah, and I don't think the guard have seen any action since, so they will be pretty hyped up," Eleazar explained. He also informed me of each of the gifts that the guard possessed, explaining how they worked.

I was particularly worried about Jane, but she couldn't be no different to bitchy school bullies I had stood up to in the past.

I was encouraged to sleep as much a possible, seeing as I would need as much energy as I could get. I drank blood three times a day, making my strength and reflexes shoot up.

Before I knew it, Saturday had arrived.

We were stationed at the clearing at seven that morning. It had begun to snow.

We were all lined up against the fringe of trees on the West side of the clearing. The House of Night vampires stood behind us and the warriors lined the North, South and West sides of the clearing, hidden by the trees. Swift was with them. I had my mental shield wrapped around everyone and kept the physical shield wrapped around me, seeing as it drained me a little, unless I absolutely had to keep it wrapped around someone.

At half past exactly, a line of dark cloaked figures glided towards us.

I shuddered. It was worse than my dream.

It was their eyes that startled me; blood red, probing and utterly terrifying.

Three figures stood out. They came and stood in front of Carlisle, less than five metres stood between them.

My heart started to race a little, Matt stood next to me and squeezed my hand tightly once, before retaking his place behind me.

"I have heard that you have been hiding things from us. Again." This voice was thoroughly pissed off. That would be Caius.

"What exactly have you heard?" Carlisle asked, looking at the figure with the pitch black hair. Aro.

"Another…creation of yours. We were as understanding as possible with young Renesmee, but you have overstepped the mark this time. And who are these?" He nodded towards the line of vampires behind us.

"They are vampires from the House of Night. They are your more stereotypical vampire: usually out at night, drink human blood, mysterious."

"Why are they here?" A very bored voice asked. Marcus.

"My creation, as you call her, was looked after by these very caring vampires, until recently. Alice bumped into her a while ago, and recently I decided that it was time for her to know her true identity."

"Who is 'she'?" Aro asked, a little impatient.

I glanced over towards the others that had joined them. Jane and Alec were there - the ones I needed to look out for.

"Anna, could you come here please?"

I jumped at the mention of my name and walked slowly towards my father. Edward smiled as I passed, telling me it was ok so far.

I swallowed my fear and looked these three ancients straight in the eye. They had seen the resemblance and all three took a step back.

"Impossible…" Marcus whispered, sounding a little scared.

"How?" Aro asked.

"Work it out. Surrogate mother. I'm like a clone." I snapped, holding my head high. They were supposed to be intelligent, right?

"I have heard you are gifted, young Annabelle." Aro said.

"Yes. But I have no intension to join you. It will never happen."

He held out his hand.

I looked at Carlisle.

He nodded.

I took Aro's hand. His eyes glazed over as he read every thought I had ever had.

"Ah," he smiled, truly scaring the shit out of me, "two shields, a way to communicate with some animals, a way to control humans and a way to evoke the elements."

I nodded.

"It's a shame that you wont be able to use them."

"What!" I gasped.

"Carlisle broke the number one rule; keep the secret. The only way to eliminate any more danger is to kill you all."

"The only humans involved are already dead. And they knew nothing of this vampire world. They only knew of the House of Night vampires," I started to well up a little at the thought of losing my family.

He pondered what I had said for a moment, "I don't see any other way, unless you were to become a vampire like us. But you seem to be going through a human phase, possibly as you transition from one to the other. But it will take too long."

A noise I had never made before ripped out of my throat. I had actually growled.

The wolves near the trees stirred then. Our visitors had been too distracted to notice them.

The warriors also appeared then. They stood in front of us, spaced out a little. They towered above us all and glared at the Volturi.

All hell broke loose then.

Hisses and growls rippled from the Volturi Guard. The strongest crouched and leapt to attack.

But they hit something half way between the Volturi and us. I hadn't even noticed that I had thrust my shield out, protecting the warriors. I managed to find Swift then too, he came towards me and waited just inside the trees.

That stopped the advancing Guard. They turned to Aro.

He nodded.

Two vampires, who I believed to be Felix and Demetri, grabbed Carlisle.

This was like my dream. Way too much like my dream.

Aro started firing questions at him, getting Felix to hit him every time he didn't answer.

We all froze.

I decided to stop it there and then, before they could start hurting everyone else.

I whistled.

Swift charged out of the trees and I vaulted onto his back as he passed me.

I had caught Aro's attention.

He came towards me.

Swift tensed, but held his ground.

"Bravo!" Aro said, before making a grab for my right leg.

Swift bit his arm inches before he touched me, making him recoil. He shook his head as he took on the vile taste of Aro's flesh.

Felix and Demetri dropped Carlisle and went to help Aro.

I glanced at Bella. She nodded at me, indicating that she could hold her shield up for longer. I dropped my mental shield, forcing all my determination into my physical one.

Aro went for me again.

Swift reared, striking him to the ground with his forefeet.

I then used a gift I rarely used.

I flew into Aro's mind and made him turn towards his four strongest: Alec, Jane, Demetri and Felix.

I left him there, distracting them, whilst I walked Swift towards them.

I concentrated fire into my hands and then flicked my hands towards the row of gifted vampires. They caught fire immediately.

Everyone was stock still.

I looked at the closest warrior. He nodded.

All of the warriors, along with the young talented vampires rounded up the Volturi Guard.

Zoey ran with them also and helped me set them alight.

Although it was wrong to do so, it was the only way we would stay alive. I returned back to the others, leaving Aro's mind.

I slid off of Swift's back and walked towards the remaining Volturi members.

"You have no one to help you eliminate us. I suggest you leave. We may even send the Romanian coven to check on you."

All three shrank back at the mention of the coven they had overthrown all those centuries ago.

"What about our Guard?" Caius asked, very vulnerable now.

"Learn to live without them. At least they died with dignity. How many of them did you force to join?"

"Most of them," Aro muttered, hanging his head.

They turned and left then.

I fell onto my knees and sobbed. Esme joined me. Carlisle enveloped us both in a hug.

"I couldn't think of anything else to do," I said, looking at my father. I was worried that he would be a little angry.

"I wouldn't have done much different," he hugged me again.

Emmett grabbed me from behind, pulling me to my feet and giving a very brotherly bear hug.

Alice, Edward, Jasper, Bella and Nessie group hugged us. All thanking me over and over for saving their lives.

When they had released me I walked over to Rosalie.

"I underestimated you. I didn't think you would be capable of protecting us like that. Thank you, so much," her voice broke at the end. I pulled her into a tight hug.

"It wasn't all me. What if I had been here alone? What if you hadn't offered to help?" I said as I pulled out of the hug.

She smiled at me, "I think I'm actually gunna enjoy having you as a little sister."

I smiled back.

Rosalie sprinted off to Emmett. Matt wound his arms around my waist and I leant back into his body.

"I was so scared that something would happen," I started crying again.

He turned me around, "so was I. But it's over now," he leant down and kissed me passionately. I snaked my arms around his neck. His arms wound tighter around my waist, pulling me to him.

Emmett wolf whistled, making my face burn. I broke the kiss then, smiling up at Matt.

We turned and walked towards my friends and family, holding hands.

There were a few tears, people were hugging and many of the warriors were cheering, along with Emmett, about our success. The wolves were howling in celebration.

Carlisle ran up to me then, sweeping me off of my feet into a tight hug. Esme her arms around both of us. She was sobbing.

"Mum, please stop crying," I said when Carlisle had put me down.

She pulled me into a hug, "I nearly lost you," she whispered into my shoulder.

After more hugs, we started walking back towards the house. I had some trouble catching Swift, who had been startled by all the noise that Emmett and the wolves had been making. I got him to lay down so I could get on him easily; I was too tired to scramble onto his back from the ground.

"Jump on if you want," I looked at Matt.

"He wont mind?"

I shook my head.

He swung his leg over Swift's back behind me and lowered his weight slowly. I gave Swift a nudge with my heels and clicked my tongue. He got up rather ungracefully and started walking towards my family. Alice stretched right on her toes and gave him a quick hug, before turning to follow everyone else home.

"Wanna race?" I whispered into Swift's ear.

He whickered quietly and nodded his head. I looked at Matt to make sure he knew what we were going to do. He put his hands around my waist and I wrapped my hands around a chunk of Swift's mane before giving him a small kick.

He lurched into canter and I laughed at the expressions on everyone's faces as we sped past into the trees.

"You're on!" Emmett shouted as he raced against us.

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**xxx**


	15. Normality

I laughed as I watched Swift prance around Emmett, mocking him. We had beaten Emmett in the race back to the house, and Swift was taking every advantage from his victory.

"His competitive ego needed to be wounded, to be honest," Rosalie laughed with me. It looked like she was showing an interest in Swift.

I glanced at my phone; only two in the afternoon and I was ready for bed. I left Swift running rings around Emmett and went to the kitchen and put the kettle on.

I made myself some hot chocolate and started looking through the Horse and Hound, which I had bought when we had gone to England.

"I'm proud of you," Carlisle was stood in the doorway.

I jumped. At least I had put my drink down, saving myself from third degree burns.

"Why? I killed loads of people! Some of them were kinda innocent: the ones that had been forced into the Volturi."

"I am proud of you because you saved all of our lives. It was the only thing you could think to do, and I'm glad you acted on impulse," he walked over and put his arm around my shoulders, "don't feel bad, that's _supposed _to be my job, being compassionate and all."

I thought that over, before throwing my arms around his waist. He hugged me back tightly.

"Do you mind if I take a look at your ankle?" he said into my hair.

I pulled out of the hug and hopped up onto the kitchen worktop.

He ran his hands over my ankle, checking for swelling.

"I suggest you go sit down and out some ice on it. It's blown up a little and some of the bruising is darker."

I looked at the ceiling and sighed, "fine."

He grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer and handed it to me. I took it and grabbed my drink and went and sat in front of one of the computers. I had a new email from Charlie. I had told her what was happening.

_**I hope everything went well. Please, please don't muck up! I'm not sure how I would cope without my best friend, even if you are a few thousand miles away.**_

_**Give Eric and Swift big hugs from me!**_

_**Love you!**_

_**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

_Aww, _I thought, before sending a quick reply.

_**Everything went well. I'm so glad it's over. I did kill loads of vampires though, using fire :P (oops). Dad says he's proud of me for saving everyone and acting so quickly. There were lots of tears when THEY had left. I killed practically the whole Volturi Guard : / **_

_**I'm glad I acted when I did, or they would have turned on Mum and I don't know if I could have handled that.**_

_**I will give Eric a hug when he comes out of quarantine.**_

_**I love you too 3**_

_**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

Alice came and sat next to me.

"Shouldn't this be on your ankle?" She asked, holding up the ice pack between her finger and thumb, rather like it was a dirty tissue.

I rolled my eyes, before getting up and going to sit in front of the TV.

"Normality, at last!" I said, crashing onto the sofa.

"What? Sitting in front of the TV with an ice pack on your ankle?" Matt said leaning on the back of the sofa.

"I hope this doesn't happen all the time, but you are probably not far off," I smiled at him.

He walked around the sofa and sat on my right. I leant against him. He didn't just look good, he smelled good too, like honey and lilac.

I started to doze off after about five minutes. Carlisle picked me up and carried me to my room.

Knowing that my family was secure and my own life was safe, I slipped into a deep sleep.

I dreamt of my two four-legged friends running around in the meadow.

It was the best night's sleep I'd had for weeks.

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**A fairly short chapter compared to the others.**

**I'd love to know your thoughts**

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**xxx**

**(I will start posting the sequel to this story as soon as my exams have finished, so keep an eye out)**


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